Ten Again
by BlueScarfGirl
Summary: When the Eleventh Doctor loses a fight with a Time Reversal Device, he is left in the body of his tenth regeneration with no memory of the Ponds. There is only one thing of which he is certain: he must find Rose.
1. Bad Wolf

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Also, to eliminate confusion: This story begins with the 11th ****Doctor at the end of the 6th ****season's Christmas Special. But, 11 becomes 10. So, this story is mostly about 10. But there are cameos of 11. Okay.**

xxx

"Fish fingers and custard?" the Doctor questions, looking up from his plate. "Oh, Pond, you shouldn't have." Smiling blithely to himself, he dips a length of fried fish into a ceramic bowl of pale goo.

"I made it last Christmas as well," Amy replies from across the table, "but you were too busy to show up."

"Ah, yes, well, things got in the way, I suppose." The Doctor takes a bite, savoring the perfect combination of sweet and salty. Without tearing his attention from his meal, he adds, "Rory, do stop making that face. You make too many faces."

"What face? I'm not making a face – "

"You _are_ making a face," Amy whispers. "Stop it."

The Doctor sighs and temporarily abandons his Christmas dinner. He laces his fingers together and looks at Amy and Rory. He opens his mouth to speak, but Amy interrupts him by thrusting a poorly-wrapped package towards him across the tabletop.

"What's this?" the Doctor asks, momentarily surprised. He looks up, attempting to fight against the growing urge to grin. "Did you get me a present?" He peels aside a bit of wrapping paper to reveal the cardboard box beneath. Unwrapping the present further, the Doctor discovers that the box is, in fact, a hatbox. He pops the lid off and stares at what's inside. He then glances at the Ponds suspiciously. "A fez? You've gotten me a fez."

"Happy Christmas," says Amy with a bright smile. An enormously bright, suspect smile.

"No, no, no," says the Doctor, raising his index finger threateningly. "Don't _'Happy Christmas' _me – I don't like where this is going." He narrows his eyes and leans forward, trying to discern the truth from their faces. "First, I thought Rory was making a reaction face to my, perhaps, questionable taste in entrées – questionable, of course, to you two, not to me – but now…" He trails off. "Oh, yes, now, I see it." The Doctor leans back in his chair, satisfied in knowing the truth, but also a little annoyed for knowing. "Fish fingers and custard? A fez? This is a manipulation scheme that has you written all over it, _Amelia Pond._"

Amy smacks Rory in the shoulder. "I warned you about making faces."

"I didn't make a face!"

"Yes, you did. Still are," the Doctor tells Rory without taking his eyes from Amy.

"I'm not!"

The Doctor finally looks at Rory. "Look at you; now you're making another face. You're making a face that says you're trying not to make a face."

Rory becomes completely still, and his eyes glaze over.

"No, don't," says the Doctor, making a face of his own. "Don't do that. That's creepy."

Rory looks at Amy helplessly. "I told you it wouldn't work."

"No, of course not. I'm very clever," says the Doctor, straightening his bowtie with enough smugness to receive a proper scowl from Amy. "Question is: why am I being manipulated? No, don't tell me!" The Doctor holds up his hand to prevent either of the Ponds from speaking. After a few quick seconds of silence, he sighs. "The TARDIS. You want a ride in the TARDIS." He places the scarlet fez on top of his head. "Well, my answer is most certainly _no_."

"But, _Doctor_," Amy begins, "it's been two years."

"You've gone longer without TARDIS travel." The Doctor looks at his warped reflection in the backside of a spoon. He adjusts his fez a bit and tucks some of his hair behind his ear before he is satisfied enough with his appearance to lower the spoon. "You both have, in fact. Say, what's two years to two thousand?"

"But you always come back for us. For me. You always come back for _me_. You're my Raggedy Doctor."

The Doctor frowns. "Isn't it enough that you get to see me for Christmas?"

Amy and Rory exchange meaningful looks.

"Alright, alright, don't answer that." The Doctor tries to keep his voice from sounding too cross.

"Just once more," Amy begs.

"For old times' sake," Rory adds. "What's the Doctor without his TARDIS, anyway?"

"Or, most importantly, without his companions?" Amy adds coyly.

"You two," says the Doctor, smiling despite himself, "will be the death of yourselves, yet."

Amy nudges Rory. "Told you it would work."

xxx

"Now, listen here, my beauty," says the Doctor, holding his sonic screwdriver like a sword. "My tough, dependable, sexy thing. We're not off to save this world or any other. We're not mending any time cracks or fighting off the Daleks or anything like that. So. No shenanigans, now."

"Are you talking to the TARDIS?" Amy asks as she leans against the glowing console. "Did you always do that?"

"Occasionally," says the Doctor, flicking his wrist a bit – his form of a shrug.

"Does it ever work?"

The Doctor glances at Amy as he twists a knob and pulls a lever. He grins. "Never."

xxx

"Really, TARDIS?" Amy demands as she steps out of the police box. _"Really?"_

"London," says the Doctor, glancing around.

"It doesn't look much different," says Rory. "Did you just fly us downtown?"

"No," says the Doctor, closing the door behind him. "No, I didn't." He frowns.

"Stupid box," says Amy. "Couldn't we have gone somewhere a bit more, I don't know, _alien_?"

"In my experience, it's never a good thing when the TARDIS takes us to London. London or Cardiff, really. Two places that always seem to disagree with me." The Doctor continues to frown.

"Let's go somewhere else, then," says Amy. "Really, Doctor, you need to be sterner with your TARDIS."

"Just a moment," says the Doctor, leaving them to trot across the street. "You there!" he calls to a passing civilian. "What year is it?"

"Are you mad?"

"Quite so, madam," the Doctor says, flashing the elderly woman a smile. "Right, then. Now that we've gotten that out of the way…The year, if you please?"

"2017," she replies, eyeing the Doctor. She zips up the front of her coat as if that will ward off whatever madness seems to be plaguing the man.

He turns to leave, but then pops back up on the sidewalk. "One more thing," he adds. "The precise date would be an enormous help to me and my fellow amnesiacs."

"The tenth of December," she says, taking a step back from him.

"Yes, okay, yes." The Doctor claps his hands together. He frowns. "I don't know what that means." He turns to Amy and Rory, who are both waiting by the TARDIS. To himself, the Doctor mumbles, "What's so significant about today?"

"What was that?" Amy calls from across the street. She blows on her cold hands.

"Today. Why today? What happens on the tenth of December in 2017?" The Doctor crosses the street towards them to pace in front of the TARDIS.

"How should we know?" asks Amy.

"How would I not know? Unless it's something nefarious that was covered up and stopped, leaving no record. That's what generally happens, anyway."

"Or, maybe not," says Rory, shrugging.

"What?"

Rory shifts his gaze from the Doctor to Amy, and then back again. "You told the TARDIS not to do any planet saving and whatnot. Maybe it listened. Maybe the TARDIS took us here at this time because _nothing _happens."

The Doctor pats one of Rory's cheeks. "There he is, the Last Centurion. Dependable as always. Oh, how I've missed you."

"Why do you always do that? Be nice and insulting at the same time? No one likes it, you know," says Rory, scowling.

"Would you rather me say that you're completely wrong?" asks the Doctor. "The TARDIS never listens to me. Why should she now?"

"Doctor," says Amy.

"Oh, yes, I know," says the Doctor, waving her away. "I should be nicer to Rory. After all, he's the father of my wife and all – "

"No, but Doctor – "

" – and what kind of son-in-law would I be if I constantly – "

_"Doctor!"_

The Doctor flutters his fingers in surprise at Amy's outburst. "Yes, Pond?" he asks after he has recovered.

Amy points at a series of large banners hanging from the lower windows of a building down the street. "There were buses stopped in front of them, but now they've moved. Read the banners."

The Doctor squints at the lettering. _Marcus Lazarus Unveils: Humanity Unconquered by Time. _The Doctor laughs a short, breathless laugh. "Bit cheesy, wouldn't you say?"

"So, it doesn't mean anything?" Amy asks, disappointed.

"Oh, I wouldn't say _that_," says the Doctor. "Lazarus? Yes, I suppose his dad and I go way back. Interesting fellow, to say the least."

"Good interesting?" asks Rory.

"Not really, no," says the Doctor. "I was unaware that he even had a son." He shifts on his feet as if sizing up the banner. "I think waiting for Mr. Lazarus's official unveiling would be a bit of a mistake. And by 'a bit,' I mean, well…Come along, you lot. Let's find his office."

xxx

A thin, slightly unfortunate-looking woman sits behind a desk just inside the door. The wall behind her is plastered with equally unfortunate wallpaper print: a series of bile-colored blooms atop a pale paisley pattern. The woman's fingernails tap steadily against her keyboard as the Doctor and his companions step into the room.

"Look, that must be Mr. Lazarus's secretary," says the Doctor in an undertone. Then, he adds, "I love secretaries!"

She looks up. "Hello," she says. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, ah," says the Doctor, slipping his wallet out from the depths of his jacket. "We're here because – " He flips his wallet open to reveal the psychic paper inside.

The woman raises her eyebrows in surprise. "All three of you?"

"Um," says the Doctor, frowning, "yes."

"This is highly inappropriate," the secretary says. "If this isn't a reason to quit, I don't know what is. Frankly, though, I'm a bit shocked at his taste – more so than usual."

"Yes, well, we're professionals," says the Doctor sternly.

Rory nods in support. "The best."

"See?" says the Doctor. "There you have it. Now, where is Mr. Lazarus?"

"He's out at lunch at the moment," says the secretary, looking at the Doctor with obvious distaste. "But you're not going to wait down here. People will talk. Go up to his office. Second floor. Third door on the left. Don't touch anything."

"Excellent," says the Doctor. "You have a good day, now."

Once they find the lift, Rory mutters to the Doctor, "What was that all about?"

"I have no idea," says the Doctor pleasantly, pressing the button for the second floor.

Lazarus's office is very neat and very large. There are no papers scattered about his desk – everything has its place. The Doctor rummages through the man's desk drawers, but comes up with nothing. There is a safe, however, and it's set into the wall behind the desk. The safe, it seems, is wide enough to fit a decently-sized television – large enough, then, to hide something truly evil.

"Wonder what's inside you," the Doctor mutters to the safe. He takes out his sonic screwdriver and fiddles around a bit with the combination knob at the front of the safe. He hears a satisfying _click_. "There we are," he says as he opens the safe. "What is it that you're unveiling, Lazarus? We'd all like to know."

"Doctor," says Amy impatiently, "could you stop muttering nonsense to yourself? What do you want _us_ to do?"

"Oh, right, the Ponds." The Doctor halts his investigation momentarily to turn to his companions. "Snoop. Check out the other rooms on this floor. And if you happen to run into anyone, use this." He tosses them his wallet with the psychic paper, and Amy catches it. She sighs and snags Rory's hand to drag him from the room.

The Doctor takes out several manila filing folders from the safe. He spreads them across Lazarus's desk and flips through them. There's a sheet of paper with a meticulous drawing of some sort of man-sized capsule. The Doctor squints at it; the sketch appears to be a near-exact replica of Richard Lazarus's Genetic Manipulation Device – the very same device that the Doctor and his past companion, Martha Jones, managed to stop.

_This is very not good_, the Doctor thinks, turning the page over. _Marcus seems to be revisiting the work of his late daddy. _The Doctor pauses on a page depicting a sketch of a man climbing into the device. He is just about to read Lazarus's cramped handwriting when raucous barking breaks out somewhere down the corridor. There is a shrill cry of surprise followed by two pairs of thundering footsteps.

Rory and Amy crash into Lazarus's office and proceed to hide behind the Doctor as a large, shaggy dog barrels through the doorway, teeth bared and snarling.

"Hi," the Doctor says mildly, peering at the dog.

The dog growls.

The Doctor blinks in surprise. Then, he glances at Amy over his shoulder. "No wonder he's cross. You woke him up."

"You speak dog?" Amy asks.

"Yes, well, once you've been traveling in the TARDIS as long as I have, you'll find that nearly everything becomes something of a language."

The dog growls again; this time, however, he's glaring at Amy.

"Don't look at me like that, you stupid mutt," says Amy. "_Bad dog_. Stay away from me, you bad wolf."

The Doctor turns sharply to face Amy. "What did you say?"

"Oh, don't tell me I've offended him by calling him stupid." Amy rolls her eyes.

"No, the 'bad wolf' bit."

"What?"

"You called him 'bad wolf.'"

"No, I called him a bad dog."

"First, you said, 'bad dog.' Then, you said, 'bad wolf.' Why?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor," says Amy, shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, I heard it too," says Rory. "You definitely said 'wolf' the second time."

Amy shrugs. "Well, so what?"

A lump forms in the Doctor's throat, and his ears begin buzzing. "I think we should leave," he says, turning back towards the dog.

"I think so, too," says the man standing in the doorway.

"Mr. Lazarus," says the Doctor with a wide smile – his attempt at compensating for the growing worry of imminent doom in the pit of his stomach.

Marcus Lazarus steps into his office and scowls at Rory, Amy, and the Doctor. He snaps his fingers at his dog, and the dog sinks down to rest his chin on his paws. "Mind telling me," Marcus begins, "why my secretary promised me there would be strippers?"

_"Strippers?" _Amy whispers, bewildered. "That's what the psychic paper said? _Someone _doesn't think too highly of Mr. Lazarus."

"Great," says Rory. "Doctor, you _had_ to go and tell the secretary that we were professionals."

"Yes, well," says the Doctor, struggling for words, "we are! Yes, Mr. Lazarus. We are here…to remove our clothing. And dance." He looks to Amy for confirmation.

"Strippers," says Amy slowly. "Right. Yeah, we're all strippers. One, two, three. All of us. You betcha."

Marcus Lazarus raises his neatly-shaped eyebrows. He is quite a young man, which is odd considering the fact that the Doctor knew Marcus's father when his father was seventy-six, and that was several years in the past. "Prove it," says Marcus.

"Um, I need to have music playing…or something," Rory whispers to the Doctor.

"I don't think this is working, Rory," says the Doctor patiently.

"Yeah, it's not," says Marcus with an elegant shrug of his shoulders. "What, with all my papers spread out across my desk like that? If you wanted me to explain the device, _Doctor_, all you had to do was ask."

"Ah, so we know each other," says the Doctor. He frowns. "How is that?"

"I know a man called the Doctor stopped my father from accomplishing his dreams nearly nine years ago, so why wouldn't I expect the same sort of obstacle? I'm glad you're here, actually. I can assure you that I have learned from my father's mistakes. Perhaps this will prevent a scene at tonight's unveiling. I know for a fact that the machine works properly."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Doctor. I've already tried it."

"Which explains why you're so young when your dad would be nearly eighty-four years old if he were alive today, may he rest in peace," says the Doctor, snapping his fingers. "Yes, alright. I like it. Well, then. Tell me all about the device."

Marcus gives the Doctor a wan smile. "First, keep in mind that Lazarus Laboratories have progressed immensely since the end of my father's reign. I have succeeded where my father has failed. His main problem was that he manipulated genetic material to restore youth – my machine, though it looks similar, is different." Marcus gestures at the sketch on his desk. "This device manipulates _time_."

"So, it's a time machine," says the Doctor, smirking to himself. "That's not so impressive."

"Don't be thick, Doctor," says Marcus. "It doesn't travel back in time in the sense that the person inside will be able to leave this time period. In more rudimentary terms, time doesn't change outside the device, it changes inside. So, essentially, the device does the same thing that my father's did, but in a different way. I turned fifty-three this year, but with the help of my Time Reversal Device, I am now twenty-three years old. And, as you can see, I'm not mutating into a big scorpion creature."

"Interesting," says the Doctor, sitting down at the edge of Lazarus's desk. "So. Hmm. How, exactly, are you able to remember everything? Theoretically, wouldn't your memories be affected by this time reversal…thingy?"

"I thought about that, and yes, memories are affected. Which is why the device has been designed to do thorough brain scans before the time reversal process. The device scans the brain, duplicates and stores memory, reverses time on the participant, and then restores any missing memories before the participant ever leaves the device."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Amy asks. "If something goes wrong, someone could walk out younger but with no memory."

"Well, yes and no," says Marcus. "They would at least have all of the memories up to _that point_ in their lifetime. They would just be missing 'future' memories, if you'd like to call it that. For example, say I went into the machine at fifty-three so that I could become twenty-three and, for whatever reason, I left before the memory restoration process was complete. I would only have the memories I had when I was twenty-three years old. I wouldn't have _complete _memory loss. And even if I did, all of my memories from twenty-three to fifty-three would be saved in the machine. I could easily pop 'em back in."

"And you're _sure _there have been no side-effects," says the Doctor, unconvinced.

"Quite sure," says Marcus. "I stepped into the machine several months ago. If there had been any problems, they would have shown up by now. But look at me. I'm _fine_."

"Yes," says the Doctor, cocking his head. "However, I fear I will remain unconvinced until I get to see a demonstration."

"I was counting on that," says Marcus cheerfully. "I suppose you wouldn't want to step in there yourself, would you?"

"Not a chance."

"Alright then," says Marcus. "C'mon Rufus, up you get." The shaggy dog rises to his feet and wags his tail in a forlorn sort of way, as if he senses what is about to happen. Marcus leads them out of his office and down the corridor to a locked door. Marcus pulls out a card, which he slides into the scanner beside the door. The door opens, and Marcus allows the Doctor and his companions to enter first. Florescent lights soundlessly flick on, lighting the path towards Marcus's Time Reversal Device.

"It sure is a beauty," says the Doctor, examining it. "Too bad it will be the destruction of all humanity."

Marcus laughs. "A skeptic until the end, I see."

"Oh, at this point, I have no doubt it works," says the Doctor, switching on his sonic screwdriver to properly examine the device. "I just worry about the consequences. Yes. Hmm. Don't you think it would be a _bad_ idea for people to use this machine? They could keep using it and they would be able to live forever."

"There will be regulations, of course. And, I imagine, it will be very expensive to be able to use one of these. The only person with the designs of this device is me, so anyone who wants to go through this process will have to go through me first."

"Convenient," says the Doctor, crouching down beside the machine. He sniffs it.

Marcus sighs. "Step aside, Doctor, and let me show you." Huffing a bit, Marcus stoops down to pick up his large dog. He places Rufus inside the chamber of the device and closes the door. "Rufus," says Marcus, "is roughly six years old. Let's take off five years and see how he looks as a puppy. Mind you, I found him in the street a year ago."

"Why is that important?" asks Rory.

"It means the dog didn't know him as a puppy. Which means he's not going to know his name unless that memory thing works," Amy tells him.

"Very good, Pond," the Doctor says, pleased.

"Let's turn this sucker on," says Marcus, punching a key with the number 5 on it. He then flips a switch.

A thin stream of red laser light slides up-and-down and side-to-side within the device. "Scanning memories," Marcus narrates. The laser light dies and is replaced by a flash of yellow-white. Through the glass door, the Doctor watches as the dog Rufus shrinks in size and increases in cuteness. The light then goes out. Rufus, now a puppy, looks out at them with obvious confusion. "Time reversed," says Marcus, "and – " The red laser light returns, scanning the length of Rufus. " – memories are restored."

Marcus opens the door to the chamber, welcoming the puppy with a series of embarrassing cooing noises. "Who's a good boy?" he asks the dog. "Who's a good boy, Rufus?" The dog wags his tail and runs towards his master. Marcus, then, snaps his fingers. Rufus sits and then sinks down to rest his chin on his paws. Marcus smiles. "See? A fully-trained dog, but years younger."

"That…is impressive," the Doctor concedes. If the device seems to work just fine, why is it that the Doctor's skin continues to prickle uncomfortably? _Something's wrong_, he thinks, staring at the device. He thinks of the dog. _But what?_

"I'm glad you think so," says Marcus. "It's good to hear that from the man who disapproved of my father's work."

_Something._

"You disapproved of him so much," Marcus continues, "that you killed him."

_Wrong._

Before the Doctor has time to turn and face Marcus, Marcus shoves the Doctor forward into the device, slamming the door shut behind him. The Doctor spins around in the chamber to face his attacker. He tries to open the door, but it is locked. "Ah," says the Doctor.

Rory and Amy attempt to fight Marcus off, but Marcus shoves them aside and turns on the machine. "How about two hundred years or so, Doctor? It will reduce you into nonexistence. A fair trade for murdering my father."

_"No!" _Amy bellows, launching herself at Marcus. "Let him out!"

Marcus elbows Amy in the face, and she falls to the floor. The Doctor bangs his fists against the glass, furious. The red laser turns on, scanning the Doctor. The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and turns to the outlet of the beam. Before he can do anything, however, there is a flash of yellow-white light. Someone yells outside of the chamber, and the Doctor sinks to his knees as his vision fills with hot light. He has no idea what is happening. Where is he? How did he get here?

The white light dies, and the Doctor straightens up. He looks around. He appears to be in some kind of chamber. Perhaps he has been in a stasis chamber.

"No!" someone shouts. "Rory, don't!"

A young man opens the door to the chamber, letting the Doctor out. _Where the hell am I? _He stumbles out into the room. _Rose_, he thinks automatically. _I need to find Rose._

xxx

**First **_**Doctor Who **_**fic. Tell me what you think.**


	2. Bowties Are No Longer In Style

One man stands, staring at the Doctor. Another man is on the floor – either dead or unconscious. There's also a girl. The Doctor looks at her; she has flaming red hair and she's wearing a large, knitted black-and-white sweater over black leggings. Her left eye is swollen and puffy as if someone's only just punched her in the face. She's staring at him with apparent bewilderment. The pretty redheaded girl then jabs her friend in the side. "What did you do that for, you stupid head?"

"I didn't want him to…I don't know! I was trying to stop the machine!" the man replies defensively.

"I'm sorry," says the Doctor, interrupting their squabble. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. This might seem a little odd, but do you happen to know the date?" His eyes then fall on the young woman's sweater; there are two reindeers stitched onto the front. "Christmas," says the Doctor before the girl can answer. "Brilliant. Of _course _it has to be Christmas."

The young man and the girl look at each other. "Doctor?" the girl asks.

The Doctor flashes a grin at her. "Hello."

The man rolls his eyes.

"We have to get him back in there," says the girl. "Now. You took him out before that memory restoration thing could happen. Did you not listen to Lazarus at all?"

"It was my first instinct," says the man.

"Right," says the Doctor, "well, I should get going." He starts off towards the door. He pauses. "You haven't seen a big blue police box anywhere, have you?"

The girl grabs his shoulders. "Doctor," she says, "you need to stay put. We have to get you back in that machine."

"I've been in stasis long enough, thanks," says the Doctor, gently nudging her aside.

"Doctor, _please_," says the girl.

"Where's my – ?" the Doctor begins before stopping himself. He hesitates. "Where's Rose?"

"Rose?" the girl asks faintly.

"Rose Tyler," says the Doctor. "Or, no, wait…" The Doctor rubs his head. "My memory is a bit fuzzy. Donna Noble? Is Donna around? Martha? No, Rose. I was just saying goodbye to her. On the beach with my meta-crisis. I didn't get to…What's happened?"

"What the hell is he talking about?" the man asks.

"His companions," says the girl miserably. "I think he's talking about his old companions."

"Old companions?" the man asks.

"Old?" the Doctor questions. "What do you mean? Where are they? Who are you lot?"

The pretty redheaded girl touches the Doctor's shoulder. "Doctor, you need to listen to me. We're going to right everything, but we need you to cooperate. I'm Amy - Amelia Pond." She points at the man. "This is Rory."

"Amelia Pond?" the Doctor questions. "That's a brilliant name." He looks at Rory. "Rory is just a…so-so name, I suppose."

"That's definitely the Doctor," says Rory dully.

"Of course I am."

"You just look a bit different," says Rory, wincing.

"But in a good way." Amy smiles. "You have great hair."

"Amy," says Rory, giving her a dirty look, "don't hit on the very confused Doctor."

"I look different? Have I regenerated, then?" The Doctor turns to look at his reflection in the glass door of the stasis chamber. Same brown hair, brown eyes, and sideburns. He adjusts the collar of his brown, pinstripe suit. Everything seems in order.

"What happened to his clothes?" Rory mutters.

"He must have been wearing that two hundred years ago or so," says Amy. She looks at the Doctor. "How old are you?"

"Nine hundred and three," he replies, looking about the room. "Sorry. Mind telling me where I am? Or when I am, rather?" He frowns. "Looks like 21st century Earth to me."

"I kind of miss the bowtie," Rory admits.

"Bowtie?" The Doctor narrows his eyes. Was this a secret code word?

"Bowties are cool," Rory and Amy chime instantly. "Or," Amy adds, "at least you seem to think so."

"I'm very confused," says the Doctor.

"We know," says Amy. "Now, would you _please_ step back into the chamber so we can fix you?"

The Doctor adamantly shakes his head. "I'm not going back in there. I have to find Rose."

"But, but…_Doctor_," says Amy. "You haven't seen Rose in two hundred years."

"Was I in stasis that long?" he asks. "How did I _get _here? I didn't get to finish saying goodbye to –"

"If you go into the chamber, everything will make sense. Trust me, Doctor. You have to trust me; if you don't, you won't remember us. Or River; you won't remember River!"

"River?" the Doctor questions.

"River Song," says Amy. "My daughter. Rory and I are her parents."

"The parents of River Song?" the Doctor asks, feeling a sense of dread. "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm so sorry, but River is…Well, she's not exactly dead, but – "

"Oi!" someone shouts from the doorway. Amy, Rory, and the Doctor abandon their conversation to look at the door. A guard aims a handgun at them. "You shouldn't be in here, mates," he says. He then looks past them to see the unconscious man on the floor. "Lazarus?" The unconscious man doesn't stir. "What did you do to him?" the security guard demands.

"Don't look at me," says the Doctor. "I just woke up. These two are the criminals." The Doctor thumbs at Amy and Rory.

"You weren't sleeping," Amy hisses. "You were in a Time Reversal Device. And we're not criminals. We were rescuing you."

"Oh." A Time Reversal Device? The Doctor frowns, trying to work everything out in his head. From the information provided by the Amelia Pond girl, the Doctor gathers that he must have regenerated for the eleventh time and, some time after regenerating, he was placed in a chamber that somehow reversed the effects of his regeneration. _My head hurts_, he thinks.

Rory takes a step towards the door.

"Stop right there," says the guard, pointing the gun at Rory.

Rory raises his hands. "Take it easy. We're not going anywhere."

The guard edges into the room and squats down next to Lazarus without taking his eyes or his gun off of the Rory. The guard checks Lazarus's pulse. _Lazarus_, the Doctor thinks. _That name definitely sounds familiar. _Realizing his situation, the Doctor makes the decision that it would be in his best interest to trust Rory and Amy.

"So, what happened to that poor man?" the Doctor whispers to Rory.

"I…decked him."

"Because you were rescuing me."

"Yeah."

"Don't worry – I can get us out of this," says the Doctor, feeling his pockets. He pulls out his psychic paper.

Amy holds up a wallet identical to the one in the Doctor's hand.

"What the – ?" the Doctor asks, glancing between the two wallets.

"You gave it to me before you went into the chamber. And since you also had it on you two hundred years ago, now we have two."

"This is – this is weird. This is _textbook _weird." The Doctor shakes his head.

"Shut up, the lot of ya," says the guard, straightening up. He retrieves a walky-talky from a clip on his belt. Still pointing the gun at the three of them, he squeezes the walky-talky and says, "Yeah, I've got three trespassers on the second floor. Mr. Lazarus is out cold. I'm gonna need a couple of men up here."

"No need for that," says the Doctor, flipping open his wallet. Amy follows suit.

The guard frowns at the two IDs. "They're both blank."

"There goes that," says the Doctor pleasantly. "Word of advice: run."

They start off towards the door. The guard shoots a round off at the Doctor; the Doctor ducks, and the guard ends up shooting the Time Reversal Device. The air explodes in sparks, and the Doctor does a somersault on the floor, shielding his face from the bright white light.

_"No," _Amy bellows, doubling back to the machine. Another shot rings out, missing Amy by centimeters. Rory grabs her upper arm and yanks her out into the corridor with the Doctor fast on their heels. Rory leads them to the lift.

"Too slow," shouts the Doctor as the guard lumbers out of the room after them. "Find the stairs!"

"Over there!" Amy points down an adjacent corridor.

"Christmas is the _worst_," says the Doctor as they take off down the corridor. They burst through the doors to the stairwell. The security guard is right behind them; he shoots at them again, and the bullet rips through the glass window set into the stairwell door. Shards of glass chase the three trespassers down the steps.

Rory shoulders open the door to the lobby. The woman behind the front desk looks up at them in surprise as they fly past her.

"Sorry," Amy calls to the secretary, "I suppose we won't be stripping after all."

A blast of frigid air meets them as they run outside and down the street. They expertly weave through bewildered passerby and hop over manholes and sleeping bums.

"Where are we going?" the Doctor calls from behind.

"The TARDIS!"

They take a left down a side street, passing banners depicting Lazarus and the following description: _Marcus Lazarus Unveils: Humanity Unconquered by Time. _The Doctor stares at each of the banners in turn as he jogs past them.

"Doctor, hurry up," Amy says over her shoulder. She and Rory cross the street, and the Doctor hastens to follow them. The TARDIS is wedged between two buildings, patiently waiting his return.

He breathes a sigh of relief as he slips through the front door of the TARDIS. His relief doesn't last long as soon as he takes a look around inside. "What the devil…?" He spins on Rory and Amy. "What have you done to my TARDIS? Why is it all," the Doctor says as he waves his hand in disgust, _"shiny?"_

"What are you talking about?" Rory asks.

"This is an outrage," says the Doctor, examining the glass platform around the console.

"Doctor," says Amy. "I've _seen _the inside of the TARDIS of your day – trust me, this one is way better."

The Doctor scowls at her, though only halfheartedly. "How dare you."

"Your TARDIS was so _boring_," Amy insists.

"It was _homey_," the Doctor corrects, putting his hands on his narrow hips. "This is just…_ridiculous._ I'm going to have to have a talk with my eleventh regeneration."

"About that," says Amy slowly. "How are we going to get you back to normal? It looked like that guard destroyed the device."

"Which is funny because that's what we went there to do in the first place," says Rory. "Only…you weren't supposed to actually go _inside _the machine, Doctor."

The Doctor scratches his head. "Miss Amy – "

"The Doctor usually calls me Pond."

"The Eleventh Doctor calls you Pond. But I'm Ten, now. Ten would call you Amy." The Doctor grins. "Anyway, as I was saying, Amy…I think I could do with a bit of a recap. Tell me exactly what's happened."

Amy hastens to explain as the Doctor sits down on the steps leading up to the console. She explains how the Doctor visited her and Rory on Christmas, and how they ended up in London on December 10, 2017, and how they came to find Marcus Lazarus and his Time Reversal Device. The Doctor listens patiently as Amy tells the story; he rests his elbow on one of his knees and props up his chin with the heel of his hand. When Amy finishes, the Doctor takes a deep breath.

"Well," he says, poking his tongue between his teeth in thought, "this complicates things. So, you two are my current companions? Both of you?"

"We were, but you've been gone for two years. Two years for us, anyway."

"What was I like? The Doctor you knew, I mean."

"A dickhead," says Rory.

_"Rory." _Amy gives him a look before returning her attention to the Doctor. "He was different. Not just that he looked different, but…" Amy's face falls solemnly.

"I'm the same person," says the Doctor softly. "I'm just a different man."

"Hold on a moment," says Amy, climbing up the stairs. She disappears in the back for a few seconds before returning with a picture frame. "This is you," she says, "just before you faked your death."

"I faked my death?" the Doctor asks, surprised, taking the picture frame. In the photograph, they – Amy, Rory, River, and a man he doesn't recognize – are all sitting on a blanket beside a lake. Amy is the one stretching her arm out in front of her to take the picture. They're all smiling. Well, they're all smiling save for the man the Doctor doesn't recognize. The man looks like he's _trying_ to smile, but, frankly, he looks like he's having intestinal problems.

"Technically, that's not _actually_ you. That's the Teselecta. A miniature you is inside its head."

_I need to take up drinking, _the Doctor thinks. "But that's what I look like?"

"Yeah."

"I'm rather unfortunate looking, aren't I?" the Doctor asks. "I look like a girl."

"Don't knock your eleventh regeneration," Amy chastises. "I happen to like him."

"Sor_ry_." The Doctor looks at the picture again. "So, I see that I somehow managed to rescue River from the library?"

"Pardon?" Amy frowns.

"Never mind. It's so strange to hear about all of these things I've done that I don't remember doing – the last thing I remember was standing in front of Rose in Bad Wolf Bay..." The Doctor trails off.

"Bad Wolf Bay?" Amy asks. "What's with you and wolves today?"

The Doctor cocks an eyebrow at her. "Today?"

"Yeah. Before you went into the chamber, you kept telling me how I said 'bad wolf' – which I didn't – and you wouldn't shut up about it."

"You said that before I went into the machine?" the Doctor asks. He starts to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm an _idiot_," the Doctor says, still laughing. "You said 'bad wolf' and I didn't run for the hills? Eleventh me sounds like a total nutcase. Sounds like I have something to look forward to."

"You were going to run, but Lazarus was too quick."

"Bad Wolf. This can't be good," the Doctor says, thinking. He bows his head and attempts to hide his smile. Even after leaving Rose in a parallel universe, she's still helping him out. Sobering up a bit, he says, "If what you two are saying is true, then I'm a paradox. As a Time Lord, I regenerate when my body dies. So, if I were to 'die' right now, would it be my eleventh regeneration, or my twelfth? Either way, I've reversed to the point where I've cheated 'death,' and that can't happen."

"You cheat death all the time," Rory says. "It's kind of your thing. It's actually pretty annoying."

"You don't understand," the Doctor insists. "If I'm supposed to be two hundred years older than I am right now, it means that idiot Lazarus has gone and rewound my body to the place in my timeline when I was in a parallel universe saying goodbye to Rose for the final time." _Bad Wolf, _he thinks. _Bad Wolf Bay. Even the place I last saw her was a warning. _

"That's…bad, is it?" Amy asks.

"Very, very bad." The Doctor pauses to think. "Well…Good _and _bad. Mostly bad. Yeah, pretty much entirely bad. It means that, however unintentionally, Lazarus has gone and made himself a rift between two universes." _But, _the Doctor thinks, _it also means I might get to see Rose again. _

"How do we fix it?" Amy asks. "Maybe we can get Lazarus to make another device to put you right. Maybe getting you back to your proper regeneration will mend whatever tear in the universe that dolt made."

"I got the impression that the device only went one way," says Rory. "That's why it's called the Time _Reversal _Device."

The Doctor shifts uncomfortably. Truthfully, he likes his current body. He doesn't want to be morphed into some fellow who, apparently, wears bowties, habitually romps around with _two_ companions, thinks it's funny to fake his own death, and feels the need to have a new fancy TARDIS. That regeneration sounds like a total cheesecake.

The Doctor looks down at his dirty converses. Would it really be so bad if he just left? What if he dropped Amy and Rory off and went back to doing what he does best? Saving the universe, and all that. He could figure how to close the rift without returning to his eleventh regeneration.

He thinks of Rose, and both of his hearts begin to hurt in his chest. Selfishly, he thinks how much easier it would have been had Lazarus reversed the Doctor to a point in his timeline before he'd ever met his faithful pink-and-yellow Rose – he wouldn't have the bad memories of having to say goodbye to her. Twice. Sure, he wouldn't have any of the wonderful memories of traveling with her either, but how would he be able to miss someone he doesn't remember?

xxx

**If I'm not making any sense, let me know. Also, I probably won't be updating every single day…I just happened to not have class today. **


	3. The Mistress, the Missus, and the Meta

The Doctor presses his back against the wall. He had been wandering about the TARDIS to examine its new changes – there is a back bedroom, presumably shared by Amy and Rory, as there are photographs of them together all over the place – when, during his exploration, he heard heated whispering coming from the main room. Currently, he hides just the inside the bedroom with his back to the wall, staying completely still so he can hear exactly what Amy and Rory are saying.

"What're we going to do?" Amy whispers. "We need _our _Doctor back. This one is…"

The Doctor cocks his head to hear better, but she doesn't finish her sentence.

"What _can_ we do? He doesn't even know who we are," says Rory. "He seems more interested in that rift in the universe than he does about getting his memories back. He doesn't _care _because he doesn't know that he _should _care."

"So, what, we just abandon him?" Amy's voice rises. "Is that what you're suggesting? He's still the Doctor. If it were us, he wouldn't give up."

"He doesn't _know _us, Amy," says Rory. "Besides, how are we supposed to fix him anyway? Lazarus isn't going to help."

"We just got him back," says Amy softly. "We can't give up on him."

The Doctor bows his head. He wishes they would. Give up, that is; it would make things so much easier for him. It's true; he doesn't know much about the couple aside from the fact that they're the parents of the professor, Dr. River Song. The main thing keeping the Doctor from dropping Amy and Rory off is the fact that he has so many questions, one of the main ones being: How did he rescue River from the Library? When he first met River, she knew all about him. She said she knew all of his faces. She also seemed surprised that the Doctor didn't know who she was – does that mean that the Doctor, in the body of his tenth regeneration, is supposed to see River again? For River to have been surprised, it must have been because she had met the Doctor – the _Tenth _Doctor – before. If she hadn't, it wouldn't have been such a shock that he didn't recognize her; it would have been obvious why he hadn't. Perhaps, in River's timeline, she hasn't even gone to the Library yet. Or, perhaps she has, and he is supposed to rescue her.

The Doctor sighs. As interesting as this all is, it isn't nearly as important as closing a rift between two parallel universes. A rift that he, however unintentionally, contributed to in creating. The list of things the Doctor needs to do is as follows: close the rift, get memories back, and rescue River Song. Though, not necessarily in that order. And, of course, those are the things he _needs _to do. What he wants to do is see Rose. Although, according to Amy and Rory, the Doctor hasn't seen Rose in roughly two centuries. How long has it been for her? Because the rift was created on the tenth of December in 2017 on Earth in _this_ universe, it would open a window to the same time on Earth in the parallel universe. The Doctor said goodbye to her in 2009 – so, for Rose, they've been apart for eight years.

The Doctor suddenly realizes that Amy and Rory have stopped their conversation. He tenses, listening – they've gone completely silent. He cranes his head around the bedroom doorway; Amy is standing in the tight corridor with her arms crossed.

"How long have you been eavesdropping?" she demands.

The Doctor grins at her bashfully. "Well, uh, I wasn't – I was just…"

_"Doctor,"_ she says. Her tone is highly accusatory.

"Sorry." He walks out into the main room and paces in circles. He slips on his glasses and presses his hands against the console; it even _feels_ alien to him. He misses his TARDIS, the TARDIS he was always familiar with. Perhaps it's the same for Amy and Rory – they want the Doctor _they _know back. "I want you to know," he tells them without looking up, "I empathize with your situation – truly, I do."

"No, Doctor, you don't un– "

"I _do_ understand," says the Doctor, frustrated. He looks at Amy. "I'm a Time Lord. I live on and leave people behind. I may not be the Doctor you're used to, but I guar_an_tee that the Doctor _you_ know would end up saying goodbye to you too. Maybe not now. Maybe not tomorrow. But everyone has to die at some point, Amy, and you're no exception. You said you hadn't seen the Doctor – _me_ – in two years. Did you ever stop and think about why that was? I probably accepted the idea that I couldn't travel with you lot for the next thousand years. I said goodbye. I made _my _peace. You should too."

Rory gapes at the Doctor. Amy just looks furious. "Made your peace, have you?" asks Amy, taking a step forward. "So, you wanting to see Rose is making peace with saying goodbye to a companion, is it?"

The Doctor freezes.

"You're not getting rid of us, Doctor," says Amy. "No matter how many morbid 'everyone dies,' anti-pep talk speeches you give, you're stuck with us. Even if we can't get you back to the bowtie-wearing, fish-finger-and-custard-eating _imbecile _we know and love. So, _shut up_, and let's find a way to mend that damn tear in the universe."

The Doctor frowns and looks Amy over – with her streaming red hair and black, puffy eye, she's a fearsome thing to behold. He grins despite himself. He guesses the Ponds will be sticking around after all.

xxx

"Don't you look handsome?" Amy asks as she brushes her hands across the shoulders of Rory's tuxedo.

"You think?" he asks, looking smug. "You're quite the looker yourself."

The Doctor ignores the couple's gooiness as he locks the TARDIS and crosses the street. It is utterly bizarre to the Doctor that Marcus Lazarus wouldn't cancel his unveiling when the thing that he planned on presenting to the public has been destroyed. The whole ordeal is quite fishy.

Walking up the steps to the gallery, the Doctor scrubs his fingers through his gelled hair – his attempt at looking more presentable. Inside, waiters brandishing trays of champagne glasses flit in and out of the crowd. Rory helps himself to one of the glasses, looking quite pleased. The two of them examine the snack table. Rolling his eyes, the Doctor abandons them to find Marcus Lazarus.

In the center of the room, there is a large _something_ covered by a shiny red cloth. The Doctor stops and shoves his fists into his pockets to look up at it. He feels a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Now, _you_ don't look like someone from the university," says a man's voice.

The Doctor rolls his head to the side to glance over his shoulder; it's Marcus Lazarus. "Mr. Lazarus." The Doctor is pleased to note that Lazarus is sporting a busted lip in addition to a black eye.

"So, who are you here with?" Marcus Lazarus asks. "One of my colleagues?"

"More or less," says the Doctor. He spots Rory and Amy coming towards him with fear etched across their faces – the Doctor holds up a hand to stop them and covers up the gesture by pretending to smooth his hair back. Rory and Amy pause, dawdling near the machine to wait and see what will happen. The Doctor looks past them to see the security guard from Lazarus's office also roaming the crowd. Because of this, the Doctor deliberately turns his back on the guard to face Lazarus. "I'm very interested in your work…You could say that it personally affects me." He pauses to snort at his own terrible joke, but Lazarus doesn't seem to know what the Doctor's talking about. "No? Right. Well, do you care to explain to me the specifics of what your machine does, Mr. Lazarus?"

"Certainly," Lazarus says, clearly delighted about being in the presence of a "fan." He goes on to tell the Doctor how the Time Reversal Device works and the complex processes involved. "Then," he finishes, "memory is restored. Good as new. It'll be a multi-billion pound business."

"That's…That's brilliant," says the Doctor slowly, looking at the veiled machine with distaste. It seems that everything Rory and Amy have told him is true. The Doctor clears his throat. "And is this – this _particular _model – the only one you've produced?"

"Heavens, no," says Marcus, chuckling. "You think I'd be stupid enough to present the only device I have to the public? No…No, I have dozens of these locked up in various warehouses. Good thing, too. Earlier today, one of my devices was destroyed. Critics, you know. Some people can't handle modern science."

The Doctor winces. There are dozens of these machines? How would he possibly be able to find and destroy them all? And, most importantly, what was done with the device that was already destroyed? Could any of the device's parts be salvaged? Could the Doctor's memories be extracted from the ruins of the machine?

"So, this device," says the Doctor. "It doesn't work in the opposite direction?"

"What, as in make you older?" asks Marcus, perplexed. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

"You know," says the Doctor, shrugging, "so kids can make themselves older to be able to purchase alcohol."

"That," says Marcus, "would be immoral. Besides, as it's a _time _device, that would mean that if the person wanted to be older, they would gain memories of things that hadn't happened yet. No…That would get too messy." He pauses to think about it. "But, if I were to do it to myself, and myself alone, I would be able to tell the future. That could always come in handy…" Marcus trails off, deep in thought.

"Mr. Lazarus?" the Doctor prompts.

"Right, yes, sorry," says Marcus, extending a hand to shake the Doctor's. "Well, I must be seeing to some of my other guests. If you'll excuse me…"

The Doctor watches him leave and rocks on his heels in satisfaction. As soon as Marcus Lazarus slips into a conversation with an elderly woman, Amy and Rory hasten to join the Doctor.

"What happened?" asks Amy.

"Why didn't he attack you on the spot?" adds Rory.

"Why would he?" asks the Doctor, grinning. "You decked the man before he got a chance to see me step out of the device. He doesn't _recognize _me." A waiter steps to the side nearby, revealing the security guard. The Doctor locks eyes with him. "But, _he _does. Let's leave, shall we?" Just as the guard lifts his walky-talky to his mouth, the Doctor grabs Rory and Amy each by the shoulder and directs them towards the exit.

"But what about Lazarus?" Amy argues as they step out into the cold.

The Doctor walks swiftly down the darkening sidewalk

"And the device?" Rory hurries to keep up with the Doctor's long stride. "We didn't do anything we came here to do."

"There are dozens of devices identical to the one in the gallery," says the Doctor. "Destroying the one will do no good. Additionally, we can't touch a hair on Lazarus's head. He's going to help us."

"You asked him?" Amy looks bewildered. "Why didn't you tell us?"

The three of them arrive at the TARDIS.

"Why are we here?" asks Amy. "What about the Lazarus-helping-us thing?"

The Doctor turns to face Amy and Rory. "He's going to help us without knowing that he's helping us. We need to meet with him, but not here. Not at this time. A couple of years in the future should do it." The Doctor unlocks the door to the police box and steps inside, making his way to the console with silent deliberation.

"What are you talking about?" asks Rory.

"I put an idea in his head," says the Doctor, "and now he's going to build a device that will be able to convert the user into an older version of himself. Only, as the device hasn't been built yet, we need to go forward into the future. Destroying the other devices will have to wait, I'm afraid. If we destroy the devices now, it may ruin Lazarus's research – we can't have _that_. He needs to be able to make progress so that he can invent the machine; that way, I'll be able to step in and get my memories back." He pauses, seeing Amy's profound confusion. "It's a whole bunch of timey-wimey nonsense. Very complicated. Don't worry about it."

"Whatever you just said…This will definitely work?" asks Amy.

The Doctor winces. "Probably."

"_Probably?" _

"Assuming Lazarus doesn't die before he completes the device, it should work. Yes."

"Okay, so we're going into the future. Let's do it."

"Oh," says the Doctor, "I should tell you…We're not going into the future _now_." When he is met by Rory and Amy's blank faces, the Doctor hastens to explain. "Lazarus will invent the device several years in the future! We've got all the time in the universe. Well, all the time in the universe before all the universes collapse and send all forms of life into utter chaos. But we've still got enough time before _that _happens." He grins. "Until then, I've got a bit of unfinished business to tend to."

"_Like?" _

"For one, have you heard from your daughter lately?"

Amy frowns.

"Didn't think so," says the Doctor, spinning away from them. "Also, I know just the person who would be able to help us. If she's doing what I think she's doing – working with Torchwood – then she might have the technology to get River out of the computer database at the Library."

"He's gone mad," says Rory, dismayed.

The Doctor ignores Rory. "Strap in," he says, grinning maniacally. "Because we're going over the edge of the universe." The Doctor cranks a lever and the TARDIS shudders, throwing Rory and Amy off their feet. _"Allons-y!"_

xxx

The streets of London in parallel Earth are wet with frozen rain. A lone, iron-grey dirigible floats overhead, and people bustle about in the growing darkness with mist rising from their mouths. Amy and Rory, still in their fancy party wear, huddle together in the cold. The Doctor, however, ignores the wet wind nicking his neck up under his collar, and he quickly crosses the street.

"So, this Rose girl," says Amy from behind him. "You think she can help you get River out of trouble?"

"If anyone knows how to help, it will be Rose," the Doctor replies distractedly; he's spotted a red telephone booth. He chuckles. "Imagine actually using one of these things for its intended purpose." He pries open the door to the booth and rifles through the contents of a phone book. "Tyler," he says, dragging his index finger down a page. "Tyler, Tyler, Tyler…_Ah! _Tyler!" He frowns. "There are a lot of Tylers in here." He flips a page. "Here we are. Rose Tyler." He rips out the page, examines it closely for her address, folds it up, and slips it into his pocket. "That wasn't so hard."

"This is what I'm having trouble with," says Rory, splaying his fingers out with uncertainty. "You intend to have Rose help you with River, right? Wouldn't it be a bad thing if they met?"

The Doctor frowns. "Why would it be bad?"

"You know," says Rory, glancing at Amy uneasily, "the _mistress_ meeting the _missus_? That never ends well. Like when, for me, the missus met the missus…That was bad enough…"

"Who is which in this scenario?" the Doctor asks, raising his eyebrows.

Amy and Rory look at each other. "We both assumed," says Amy, "that you were in love with this Rose girl with how you looked all weepy-eyed whenever you mentioned her. And then there's River…"

"Are you…," says the Doctor slowly. "Are you saying that River and I, that _archaeologist_ and I, have a – or, had a…We had a _thing_?"

"She's kind of your wife," says Amy.

"My…What?"

"You two like to snog," says Rory. "I've seen it. It's gross. It's like watching your parents make out. Except we're the parents…watching our cougar daughter kiss you. It's all very disturbing. I don't like it." Rory makes a face.

Well, River _did _know the Doctor's name back in the Library. It's not like she could have just guessed it. The Doctor shakes his head, pushing these thoughts away. He needs to focus; if Rose helps him rescue River from the Library, then he'll have two more allies to help him take on Lazarus and the, perhaps, impossible number of devices the inventor will have made in the future.

"Let's not worry about Rose and River meeting right now," says the Doctor. "We have to _find _Rose first. Let's go."

xxx

The townhouse is old, but it looks charming enough – definitely Rose-worthy by any account. The Doctor pauses on the front steps, looking up at the dimly-lit windows above. Someone is home, despite there not being a car parked in the front.

"Aren't you going to knock?" Amy asks. "It _is _rather cold out here, in case you've forgotten."

The Doctor grits his teeth, fighting off the waves of anxiety flooding down his limbs. "What if…," he begins, before silencing himself. _What if she's happy? What if she doesn't want to see me?_

"Oh, for Pete's sake," says Amy, nudging him aside to knock on the mahogany door.

After a few painful seconds, the Doctor hears the chain slide off the door and the bolt unlock. The door opens, and the Doctor is met by a mirror image of himself. Amy takes a step back in shock, and Rory makes a noise halfway between a grunt and a squeal.

"Doctor," says the Doctor, nodding in greeting.

The Doctor's meta-crisis opens the door wider. He's wearing normal, earthling pajamas. Soft plaid pants and a white undershirt; on top of everything, he has on a dark blue bathrobe. "If you're here," he says, "something bad must be happening."

"I'll say," says Amy, grabbing the Doctor's sleeve. "Doctor," she hisses in an undertone, "you're not supposed to mess with your own timeline."

"This isn't me from a past timeline," says the Doctor before gently removing Amy's hand from his arm. "This is my meta-crisis."

"_Oh_," says Amy sarcastically, "_my_ mistake. It _all _makes sense now."

"Does it?" asks Rory, genuinely confused.

"Sorry," says the Doctor, turning back to the meta-crisis. "Is Rose about?"

The meta-crisis shifts uncomfortably. "No, she's not."

"Do you know when she'll be in?" asks the Doctor.

The meta-crisis clears his throat. "Doctor, you misunderstand me. She's not here because she doesn't _live_ here anymore. She hasn't lived here in years."

The Doctor feels for the folded-up phone book page in his pocket; the book must have been a very old edition. "And, because this apparently isn't my day, you aren't going to know where she is, are you?" asks the Doctor with a growing sense of dread.

"I'm afraid not."

"Brilliant."

The meta-crisis hesitates. "Come in. Let's see if I can help somehow." The Doctor, Amy, and Rory file in past the meta-crisis into the warm, yellow-lit foyer. There's a sitting parlor off to the side, and the meta-crisis invites his visitors to take a seat. As they sit down, the meta-crisis rummages through a writing desk. "Rose's parents, and their son Tony, moved to Cardiff a couple years ago. I don't know their new address, but I think I have their number somewhere." He mumbles to himself a bit as he digs through envelopes and notepads.

"I don't understand," says the Doctor, trying to keep the anger from his voice. "What happened to you and Rose? I thought the whole plan was to have you two together. You were supposed make her happy and be _me_ for her."

The meta-crisis smiles bitterly. "Apparently, being _almost _you isn't the same as being entirely you." He rakes his fingers through his hair. "Or, else, that's how Rose put it. We were together for about a year after you said goodbye. Then, she ended it. Said it was wrong."

The Doctor raises his eyes to the ceiling and sighs. _Rose_, he thinks. _Rose, you idiot. _

xxx

**Sorry about the whole planting-an-idea inception thing with Lazarus towards the middle; that was completely unintentional. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it! All of your comments have been lovely, but if I ever write anything particularly outlandish, please call me out on it. I like being called out. **


	4. Westfield Discoveries

"Doctor, you need to stop calling," says Jackie from the other end of the line. Her voice sounds calm, albeit a little sad.

"Pardon?" questions the Doctor, pressing the phone closer to his ear. He frowns in Amy's direction. "This is only the first time I've – "

"If Rose wanted to see you, she'd do it. She'd go and see you, no question. Since she hasn't, that means you should leave her well enough alone," Jackie says quickly, cutting the Doctor off. "For the first in a long time, she's _happy_. She left the life behind – all those aliens and that nonsense. I'm glad she got out. It would have killed her eventually, and – "

"_Jackie Tyler," _the Doctor says loudly, silencing Rose's mother on the other end. The Doctor takes a deep breath. "What on _earth_ are you talking about? So, she's not working with Torchwood?"

"You know that, Doctor," she says.

"Jackie, no, I think you misunderstand. I'm not the _meta-crisis. _I'm the Doctor. The _actual_, real, two-hearted Doctor. And I need to find Rose. So, if you please, it would be a great help if you'd – "

Jackie snorts. "As if I haven't heard _that _one before. What was it last time? Oh, yeah, you told me that there was a rip in the universe again, and you needed Rose's help because of daleks and the like."

"There _is _a rip in the universe, and I _do _need Rose's help. There aren't any daleks – knock on wood, anyway – but, if you'd just – "

"Oh, so the _last _time you called, it wasn't really you, was it?" asks Jackie, tittering. "But _this _call is actually you. I've heard enough. Bye, Doctor."

"Jackie!" the Doctor shouts into the receiver. _"Listen to me._ I'm the real Doctor. I even have two new companions. Amy, _tell her_." He edges to the side of the phone booth to allow Amy to squeeze in and take the phone.

"Hello," says Amy with uncertainty. "Mrs. Tyler, is it?" After a few moments of chatting with Jackie, Amy hands the phone back to the Doctor.

"Well?" the Doctor asks. "Convinced?"

"New companions…That's certainly something you haven't tried. How much are you paying them to talk to me? A couple quid?" Jackie laughs again, though this time her laugh is uneasy.

"This is ridiculous," the Doctor says, rolling his eyes, before pressing the phone against the side of his face. "Just tell me where she works. That's all I want to know. I won't go to her home or anything, I just really need to see her. Talk to her. If she doesn't want to help me, then fine. But I _have _to see her. This may be the only chance I'll have."

Jackie sighs. Finally, she says, "She works in Westfield. That's all I'm telling you. Don't call back again."

There is a click, and the Doctor is greeted by the hum of the dial tone. He slowly lowers the phone and scowls. "That _woman _has always been the biggest…the biggest…" He struggles for words to find an accurate insult, but he gives up and sighs. He hangs up the phone and follows Amy out of the booth to meet Rory on the sidewalk. "Westfield," says the Doctor, shaking his head. "She might as well've told me that Rose works on planet Earth for all the good _that_ does me."

"Does that mean we get to go shopping?" Amy asks, excited. Rory lifts his eyes to the dark sky and sighs.

The Doctor ignores her question and makes his way to the TARDIS. "We need to go to the eleventh of December," he says distractedly, pushing open the door to the police box and climbing up to the console. As he fiddles with the controls, he curses his meta-crisis for making things so difficult.

xxx

The Westfield London Shopping Centre is crowded with people buying Christmas gifts. The Doctor isn't slowed down by the crowd, however; instead, he is slowed down by Amy, who feels the need to poke through the clothing in every shop they stop in to look for Rose. Currently, she bends over a display of multicolored tights with varying levels of tackiness. Rory wanders aimlessly, attempting to look for Rose without having the knowledge of what Rose looks like. Every time he spots a blonde girl, he excitedly calls to the Doctor, "I think I found her!" But, of course, it's never Rose.

The Doctor stands on the tips of his toes to see above the clothing racks in a Banana Republic. No such luck. He turns to find his companions. "C'mon," he says, taking Amy's elbow and pulling her away from the tights. The three of them leave to enter a department store. At the mouth to the store, Rory suddenly halts.

The Doctor and Amy turn to look at him. "What is it?" Amy asks.

All Rory does is point.

The Doctor and Amy look up at the wall; there's a large, billboard-sized ad for men's cologne. _Petrichor_, it reads. _A long-lasting scent for a dependable man. _Posing in the ad, with soulful eyes and his chin resting on a fist, is Rory. 

The Doctor, despite all of his anxiety in finding Rose, cracks up. He doubles over, placing his hands on his knees, and laughs.

"That's embarrassing," says Amy, looking up at the poster.

"I'm a _model_," says Rory, still staring.

"Well, your parallel world self is, anyway," says the Doctor, still laughing.

"So, would I be a nurse?" Amy asks.

"I dunno," says the Doctor, full of giddy, uncontrollable laughter. He turns away from the advertisement. "Maybe you're – " The Doctor stops midsentence, his laugher dying instantly. He feels as if he's paralyzed. Indeed, the soles of his shoes are rooted to the cream-colored department store tiles. For, across the store, standing behind a counter, is Rose.

Her face is angled down towards the countertop on which she's arranging boxes of perfume. She tucks a length of blonde hair behind her ear and looks up as a customer walks up to her counter. She smiles widely at the customer and gestures to the boxes as she speaks. Of course, the Doctor is too far away to hear what she's saying, but he is mesmerized by her mouth as it moves wordlessly.

"Doctor?" Amy questions.

The Doctor blinks, finding it difficult to get his tongue to work. "Stay here," he finally says. "Give me a moment, will you?" Before waiting for either Amy or Rory to reply, the Doctor strides across the store. He hovers a few paces from the counter, waiting for the customer to leave. When the customer pays up and wanders away, the Doctor takes a step forward.

Rose picks up one of the tester perfume vials. She takes off the cap and sniffs the nozzle before spraying a bit of perfume on her wrist. She sets down the bottle and rubs her wrists together.

"Rose," says the Doctor, his voice coming out hoarsely. She doesn't look up. The Doctor clears his throat and speaks louder. _"Rose."_

xxx

Rose looks up. Before her stands the Doctor in a smart black suit with his hair artfully gelled back. He looks as if he's just come from some kind of hoity-toity yacht party. Although she is surprised to see him, her jaw tightens and she regards him warily. "What are you doing here?" she asks. "And why are you wearing a tuxedo?" Her eyes pause on his face. "Is this…Is this some kind of trick to get me back?"

The Doctor raises his hands in surrender. "No tricks," he says. "It's _me_."

Rose crosses her arms. _The Doctor's gone_, she tells herself. _That's not him._ Although she knows the man standing before her is only the meta-crisis – the human Doctor – she can't prevent her heart from beating wildly in her chest.

"I swear, it's me," he says, lowering his hands to his sides. "Would I lie to you? I practically had to twist your mum's arm to find out where you were."

Rose huffs. _"Mum," _she says knowingly. "Of course she told." Rose sighs. "'Suppose I should give her _some_ credit – she did last several years."

"Don't be cross," he says good-naturedly, leaning towards her across the counter.

"You can't keep doing this," she says. "I quit my last position 'cause of you." She points to the metal nametag pinned to her blouse. "I'm a manager now," she says. "I don't want to find a new job." She takes a deep breath. "You need to get over me, Doctor. It took me a long time, but I got over you."

The Doctor searches her face. "No, you didn't," he says gently.

Rose feels her face crumple. She quickly looks away so the Doctor can't see.

"Is it true," says the Doctor slowly, "that you left my meta-crisis because he wasn't me?"

She scowls. "I'm not going to fall for this." This declaration is more for her benefit than for the Doctor's. She has to keep telling herself: _It's not him. It's not him. It's not Him. _

_"Rose,"_ says the Doctor, clearly frustrated. "Why can't you…" He trails off. He looks up quickly and reaches across the counter to take Rose's hand. She tries to slip out of his grip, but the Doctor stops her. "Trust me," he says. He takes her hand and presses it against his chest, first on one side. He has her feel his heartbeat. Then, he slides her hand to the other side of his chest. Make that plural. _Heartbeats._

She snatches her hand back, as if burned. She stares at him.

"I told you," he says, tilting his head to the side and grinning. "It's me."

She restrains herself from launching over the counter to throw her arms around him. Instead, she rounds the register with uncertainty. She stands in front of the Doctor, putting both of her hands on his chest. She needs to be _sure._ They're both beating beneath her palms.

She runs her hands across his shoulders. She touches his face.

"Hello," he says.

She embraces him, resting her chin on his shoulder. Then, she turns her head and presses her face into his neck, breathing in her Doctor. The real Doctor.

xxx

The Doctor wraps his arms around Rose, resting his chin on the top of her head. He closes his eyes. Suddenly, however, she pulls away and punches him roughly in the shoulder.

"What was that for?" he demands, rubbing his wound.

_"What took you so long?"_ she counters. "It's only been _eight years_."

"Counted, have you?" the Doctor asks, fighting a smirk.

"Shut _up_," she says, clearly incredulous at his arrogance. She points a finger at him. "I'm not done yelling at you."

The Doctor sits on the counter and crosses his legs at the ankle. "By all means, continue."

"You're a right pain, you know that?" she says. Her frustration visibly melts away. She looks at her feet. "I thought I would never, _ever_ see you again."

The Doctor opens his mouth to reply, but is interrupted by Rory.

"Are you two done?" Rory asks, his face weary. "Amy wants to look at the swimsuits. In _December_. We have to stop her."

Rose frowns at Rory. She looks at the Doctor. "You're mates with a famous model?"

Rory looks chuffed.

"Oh, he's not famous," says the Doctor, waving the idea away.

Rory scowls at the Doctor before telling Rose, "He's right, actually. Don't let my good looks fool you."

Amy appears, her arms laden with clothing. "Oi, Doctor," she says. "I need you to sonic an ATM for me…"

"No, Amy," says the Doctor. "Put those down."

Rose shifts on her feet. "Who's she?"

"Oh, right," says the Doctor. "Rose, meet the Ponds. Rory and Amy."

"Companions?" questions Rose stiffly.

"Apparently," says the Doctor. "They say they are." When Amy gives him a sour look, the Doctor adds, "I mean, I _trust _them." The Doctor closes his eyes and makes a face. "Well, it's complicated. I'll explain on the way to the TARDIS."

"Wait," says Rose. "Where are we going?"

"You didn't tell her?" Amy asks. "What were you doing during all this time? Snogging?"

The Doctor ignores this. "We're on a rescue mission. What do you say? Want to come along, for old times?" He extends his fingers to Rose.

She takes his hand. "Like you had to ask."

xxx

Rose looks around the TARDIS. Everything's different. "So, you're not even supposed to look like you," says Rose, running her hand over the foreign-looking console. She looks up at the Doctor. "When this is all over, you'll look like someone else. Right?"

The Doctor puts his hands into his pockets and sits down on the steps with his back to Rose. "Well, that's the plan."

"I won't…" she begins. She pauses. "Will I have to see you change?"

"No," says the Doctor. "You'll be back in your world by the time I step into the device. Because if you're with me, the rift will close and you'll have no way back to your family."

She can't help but look at Amy and Rory with malice. The Doctor will change, and the Ponds will get their happy ending. But Rose will have to go home and live in a world where the Doctor can't exist, and even if he could exist, he'd be in a different body. He'd be a different person.

"I feel like you've just told me that you're going to die," Rose says.

The Doctor turns to look at her. "That's what it feels like." He turns away again. "I don't _remember _being my eleventh regeneration. I like this body."

"We like you," Amy tells the Doctor, "but we miss our Doctor. And when you get back to normal, you'll understand; you'll have all your memories. Our Doctor likes his body too." Rose watches Amy cross the room to sit next to the Doctor on the steps. "And," adds Amy, "think about River."

Rose raises her eyebrows. Earlier, when the Doctor explained the details of the rescue mission, he was vague about who exactly River Song is. There's something in Amy's tone that makes Rose suspicious of the nature of the relationship between the Doctor and this mystery woman; she even sees the Doctor's shoulders tighten at the mentioning of River. Sighing, Rose decides she'd rather not know. After all, the Doctor has yet to ask for the details of her previous relationship with his meta-crisis. That would definitely get awkward.

xxx

"Right," says the Doctor, hopping to his feet. "River." He turns to Amy. "In the Library," he says, "she told me that the last time she saw me, I took her to Darillium. To see the singing towers. Have I done that yet?"

"You could always look in your book," Rory says before Amy can answer.

"Book?" asks the Doctor. "What book?"

"You and River," says Amy. "You both keep records of when you meet up. So you both know where you are in the other's timeline. You keep it here in the TARDIS. The library, I think. I'll get it." She stands up.

The Doctor stares at her. "I keep a book of places I go?" He looks at Rory. "And you two didn't think to tell me until now?"

Rose laughs. "You should really learn how to screen your companions, Doctor." She earns two foul looks from the Ponds. "Joking," says Rose.

Amy disappears for a few seconds before returning with a TARDIS-blue journal. She hands it to him. It looks almost identical to the journal that River had with her in the Library. Hesitating, the Doctor peels back the cover and flips through the pages – details about things he's done but doesn't remember. He flips to the place in the journal where the writing stops. He sighs.

"What is it?" Rose asks.

"We have more work to do," says the Doctor. "I haven't given River my sonic screwdriver yet." He takes the screwdriver out of his pocket. "And seeing as I haven't made the proper modifications to it, I have to do that too." He groans. Building a militia to take down Lazarus is taking longer than the Doctor originally thought. It took time to find and recruit Rose, and it's going to take even longer to rescue River because, first, he has to send her to her doom.

xxx

The Doctor sits cross-legged on the floor of the TARDIS. His glasses are balanced precariously on the tip of his nose, and he holds his tongue firmly between his teeth. In one hand, he holds a torch, shining the light on his screwdriver. There's a halo of bits of metal and junk encircling him on the floor. Every once and a while, he'll curse under his breath or smack his screwdriver on the floor with vigor.

Rose watches him as he works. She'd missed that look of concentration he gets when he's pressed for time. Maybe that was the reason she couldn't bring herself to love the meta-crisis – he was the Doctor in every way, except he was _normal_. The meta-crisis was never pressed for time unless he was late getting to his job at an insurance company. The meta-crisis wasn't out saving the world or the universe, for that matter – he was an IT guy who spent his day setting up his coworkers' email accounts. Fighting evil and saving people through time and space is what makes the Doctor who he is, and even though the meta-crisis had memories of doing so, he'd left that life behind. At the end of the day, the meta-crisis was human. And that wasn't good enough.

"Rose?"

Rose looks at Amy.

"The Doctor – in his eleventh regeneration, I mean – never talked about you," Amy begins.

"Thanks," says Rose, frowning.

"No, that's not what I meant," says Amy, trying to start over. "I mean…He never told me who you were to him. So, what were you two? Were you…together?"

Rose continues to frown. "Not exactly. Why?"

"I dunno," says Amy, looking off at the Doctor. "It's just…" She shakes her head. "Ever since he walked out of that device, he's been obsessed with finding you. I just don't understand why."

"He said he needs my help," says Rose.

Amy gives her a meaningful look. "He could easily take on Lazarus without your help _or_ River's help. Clearly, Lazarus isn't a problem. My guess is he's just finding more things to do so he can delay going into the Time Reversal Device for a little longer…and he wants to spend the time he has left with you."

xxx

**Okay, I promise actual adventures are going to come at some point. It's just a matter of setting everything up. **

**Also, this chapter and the next are based off the knowledge I gleamed from the following River Song quote (which I do not own, btdubs) from "Forest of the Dead":**

_Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here.__The last time I saw you, the real you — the future you, I mean — you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was! The towers sang, and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the Library. You even gave me your screwdriver; that should've been a clue.__ There's nothing you can do._

**Also, I haven't read any other DW fics, so I don't know if this annoys anyone else, but it sure bothers me: Every time I type "TARDIS," I always read it in a loud voice. Like when I made the Doctor say, **"I'll explain on the way to the TARDIS," **I read it as **"I'll explain on the way to the _**TARDIS**_." **It's like the Doctor's angry, but that's not how I mean it to sound. Maybe it's just me.**

**Anyway, leave a review. Tell me if you're liking it so far. Or not. That's cool too. **


	5. Broken Flowers

The Doctor holds up his sonic screwdriver; it's new and improved with a neural relay data chip. "Really," he says to his audience of Rose and the Ponds, "it's something of a Frankenstein's monster with bits of the old screwdriver and bits of the TARDIS all jumbled up into one wibbly-wobbly sonic package."

"It looks like poo," says Rory, squinting at it.

Amy agrees. "I'm only impressed if it works on wood."

The Doctor lowers the screwdriver in defeat. "No, of course it doesn't work on wood." He sighs as he rolls the screwdriver between his palms. "Also, weirdly enough, it no longer seems to work on toasters…"

"Breakfast be damned," says Rose encouragingly.

The Doctor nods and adopts a lighter tone. "But at least it'll prevent Dr. Song from being com_plete_ly annihilated." He tosses the screwdriver up into the air and catches it. "Not _bad_." Turning to the console, he adds, "Now, all we have to do is find her." He scratches his chin. "Well, finding her is easy, but finding the _right _her…_That'll _be a bit of a task."

"If it helps," says Amy, "the last that Rory and I saw of her was after the crash of the _Byzantium_ when she visited us. That was when she told me you, or the eleventh you, faked your death. Then, she left without even saying goodbye." Amy scowls.

The Doctor takes out his journal and flips through it. "Okay, _okay_, I see," he says, pausing on a page. He traces his index finger over the words. "_Byzantium_. There you are. Oh, look at that. I was there." He glances at the Ponds. "So what, exactly, was the date that she visited you?"

xxx

The Doctor crouches down in a flowerbed and bats aside the fat green leaves of a blue hydrangea. The back porch light of the Pond residence is on, flooding the darkened yard in warm, yellow light. Rose is kneeling in the dirt to his left, and the Ponds are clinging to the base of a tree to his right. There is a soft breeze that carries the sweet notes of wind chimes to their ears. The garden is completely tranquil. Well, mostly.

"Rory," whispers Amy, "you're breathing too loudly. Stop it."

_"Stop breathing?" _he hisses back incredulously as he turns to her.

"You just trod on one of my flowers!" she cries.

The Doctor buries his face in his hands. To Rose, he says, "I don't know how my future self puts up with them." He pauses. "Er, past self." He shrugs. "You know what I mean."

Rose smiles at him, but quickly looks away.

Currently, the Doctor is back in his proper universe, and they've gone back in the Ponds' timeline to their last visual sighting of River Song. Originally, the Doctor wanted Amy and Rory to wait in the TARDIS to prevent their past selves from seeing their current selves, but Amy argued that, since she'd already lived this scene in her life, she would know exactly where and when her past self would be.

"I swear, Rory, if you kill another one of my plants, so help me – "

A light in the house turns on.

"They're your past self's plants!" says Rory. "Currently, in our timeline, in 2013, these plants are dead anyway. Because it's _winter_."

The back door opens.

"Shh," says Amy. "This is it."

The Doctor rolls his eyes and sighs. _Finally_, he thinks.

Past Amy wanders out of her home clutching a bottle of something – it looks like white wine – and two glasses. She sets the glasses and the bottle down at a small, two-person card table. She pours a generous amount of wine into one glass, but leaves the other empty. Past Amy sighs, drawing her beige shawl more tightly around her shoulders. She sits down in one of the two wicker chairs, staring off into the darkened yard. The Doctor feels as if she's looking directly at him, so he slowly lowers himself to his elbows to make sure his face is completely hidden.

Current Amy crawls away from the tree and over to the Doctor. "River's going to appear at any moment," she mutters. Then, she asks, "Why can't you just walk out there and take River when she appears?"

The Doctor tilts his head towards Current Amy. "Well," he says, "do you _remember_ me coming out of your garden and abducting your daughter?"

"No," says Current Amy.

"Then clearly," says the Doctor kindly, "I'm not meant to do that."

There's a flash of white light behind Past Amy. Past Amy seems untroubled by it and doesn't even turn around. Instead, she says, "I heard there was a freak meteor shower two miles away…so I got a bottle."

River stands behind Past Amy. She hesitates, then smiles. She walks to the table and picks up the bottle and the empty glass. "Thank you, dear," River says. River is all decked out in a camouflaged suit. Her curls are tied up behind her head; she looks tired, but cheerful.

"This is bizarre," says Current Amy just as Past Amy says, "So, where are we?" River pours the wine.

"That's her, then, right?" asks Rose.

The Doctor clears his throat. "That's, uh…Yes. Dr. River Song." He knows he should tell Rose the truth. That River is his wife, for reasons unknown. When he read through the journal his eleventh self kept, he was able to learn the details of what he did, but was unsure of the reasons why he did them. Did his eleventh regeneration love River? The journal gave no definite answers. To the Doctor, currently, River is practically a stranger – nothing more than a brave woman who sacrificed herself for the lives of others in the Library. Although River is no doubt an honorable person, to the Doctor, there has only ever been Rose.

Rose opens her mouth to speak, but the Doctor dreads what she will say. He stops her. "Listen, Rose," he says, forcing himself to look her in the eye. "I know everything is complicated right now. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I am. But I'm just as lost as you are. I don't have any answers right now because I don't know this woman. Not really. But we're going to figure this out together. I promise."

She looks away from the Doctor to watch Past Amy and River chat at the table. "I know," Rose says. "'Cause if you knew all the answers, you wouldn't've invited me along."

The Doctor frowns. "What do you mean?"

"If you knew everything…If you knew who River was to you, you wouldn't have gone and gotten me." Rose looks at him. "It would've been cruel."

Feeling ill, the Doctor forces his attention back on Past Amy and River.

"Oh, that man," says River. "He's always one step ahead of everyone. Always a plan."

The Doctor bows his head. _I wish that were the case now_, he thinks.

"River," says Past Amy. "What did he tell you? River?"

River tells Past Amy the truth – that the Doctor faked his death by making use of the Teselecta. Past Amy shrieks with delight and hugs River. They bounce up and down a couple of times and then have an impromptu dance party.

The Doctor does not feel the joy shared between Past Amy and River. He sees their happiness, but it only makes his chest heavy. It is clear that his eleventh regeneration means a lot to these people. For him to delay stepping into Lazarus's device is to make these people suffer even more than they already have. Then, he looks at Rose and realizes that if he _doesn't _delay stepping into Lazarus's device, he hurts her. It all comes down to whom he'd rather hurt and for how long.

Past Rory runs out into the yard. Past Amy embraces him.

"Aww, look at us," Current Amy tells Current Rory.

"I love you," says Current Rory. They kiss.

The Doctor purposely ignores them.

"Are you sure of it?" Past Rory asks River. "Are you really, properly sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" River replies. "I'm his wife."

The Doctor feels Rose stiffen beside him.

_I'm done for_, the Doctor thinks. "Rose," he says.

"Not now," she replies, putting a finger to her lips.

"We go inside," Current Amy narrates. Just as she says, the Past Ponds and River move as a group towards the back door. They go inside. The door closes, and the sound of the lock clicks.

"Then," says Current Rory, creeping away from the tree, "you get dinner started. I go upstairs to take a bath."

The Doctor can see Past Amy through the partially-opened curtains of the small kitchen window. She turns away from the window and briefly disappears.

"That's me putting the chicken pot pie in the oven," says Current Amy. "Then I go upstairs to find some sheets for the pull-out sofa." She turns to the Doctor. "Rory and I had convinced River to stay the night before going back to her prison cell." A light goes on somewhere upstairs. "Go now, Doctor," she says urgently. "River will be in the kitchen. _Hurry._"

The Doctor breaks out of the hydrangeas and runs for the back door. He peeks through the kitchen window – River is leaning against the counter with her fingers curled around her wineglass. The Doctor stands up straight, brushes the earth from the elbows of his suit, and smoothes back his hair. He hesitantly raises his fist and knocks lightly against the door.

The door opens. River stands before him, her eyebrows aloft. "Can I help –," she begins. She stops midsentence. "I know you," she says. Realization seems to dawn on her. She breaks out into a wide smile. "Hello, sweetie."

"You know me then," says the Doctor. He shifts from one foot to the other on the doorstep. "You've seen me before in this body?"

"No," she says. "I didn't get my doctorate from sitting around and watching the telly, you know. I know all of your faces; I just don't know which order I see them in...Doctor." She smiles and touches his face. Knowing that Rose is watching, the Doctor instinctively shies away. River frowns at this. "Where are you in your timeline?"

"The Singing Towers of Darillium," the Doctor replies, forcing a grin. "I've always promised to take you." _Apparently, _the Doctor silently adds.

"Oh," says River, lowering her hand. "So we're married. You're a future regeneration of my Doctor, then?"

The Doctor decides this is easier and quicker than actually explaining everything. "Quite right," he says.

She seems satisfied with this response. She then looks him up and down. "What's with the gelled hair and tuxedo get-up? Is this how you dress now?"

The Doctor laughs as he looks down at the suit he put on for Lazarus's unveiling. "No," he says. "I just haven't gotten the chance to change." He looks back up at River. "Listen, Dr. Song – er, honey…Sweetie?" He cocks his head. "Listen, _River_. We need to leave now."

She turns away from the doorway and sets her wineglass down. "Yes, of course," she says. "Let me just pop up to say goodbye to the parents." She winks at him.

"No," he says quickly.

She stares.

"Sorry," he says, recovering. "You can't say goodbye. They can't know I'm here. Please, just come with me."

Suddenly, Current Amy is at his elbow. _"Doctor," _she hisses, grabbing his upper arm. _"This is where I come down to the kitchen."_

There are footsteps on the stairs. The Doctor grabs River's hand and pulls her out through the doorway. Current Amy runs alongside them. Together, the three of them tumble into the darkened hydrangeas. Gasping for breath, they crouch in the foliage beside Current Rory and Rose.

Past Amy stands alone, framed by the doorway. Her arms are laden with white linens, and her mouth is downturned into a frown. "River?" she questions, looking at the open door. She steps onto the back porch. _"River?"_

"I'm going to go back in the kitchen and set down the sheets," says Current Amy, "but then I'm going to come out in the garden and look for River. We need to get back to the TARDIS."

Past Amy goes inside to set down the sheets. As soon as her back is turned, the Current Ponds, the Doctor, River, and Rose all jump up and break into a run to get to the TARDIS. They slide inside and Rose slams the door shut behind her.

"To Darillium," says the Doctor with excitement as he roughly slams his hands on the controls and the floor shudders beneath them all.

xxx

When the TARDIS stills, everyone looks at each other. Rose, of course, can't help but stare at River. She's a visibly older woman with dark gold curls and a wide smile. Additionally, Rose doesn't much like the way that River is looking at the Doctor. Finally, however, River turns her attention from the Doctor to Rose.

"Well, dear, _you're_ new," says River with interest, joining Rose on the stairs. She stands a couple of steps above, looking down at Rose.

"Likewise," says Rose, doing her best to stay polite. "I'm Rose Tyler." She extends her hand.

River shakes it, never taking her eyes from Rose's face. The woman's grip is so tight it hurts. "I see," says River. It's almost as if she _knows_, but how is that possible? Amy told Rose that the Doctor never talked about his past companions. To anyone. Or, so Rose assumed. After a long moment of River staring fixedly at Rose's face, River finally says, "Dr. River Song."

Rose looks past River at Rory; he looks distinctly uncomfortable. The Doctor, too, appears uneasy. Only Amy looks unconcerned.

"Mother," says River humorously as she turns from Rose to face Amy. "Sorry I didn't say goodbye."

"We were worried sick," says Amy, though only halfheartedly. Rory nods in agreement.

"Well," says the Doctor, "now that we've all made amends, let's –" He thumbs at the door and tilts his head. " – get out of here, shall we?"

"Doctor," Rose pipes up. "A word?"

The Doctor smiles, though his smile is of unease. "Of course, Rose. Anything."

Rose glances at River. "Alone?"

The Doctor looks at the others. They stare back. "You heard her," he says, pointing to the door. "Go on. We'll catch up. And don't look at me like that, River; I'm not going to let you three enjoy the Singing Towers all by yourselves."

River narrows her eyes slightly, but joins the others outside. The door closes behind her, leaving the Doctor and Rose, finally, alone. They stare at each other without speaking for a few moments. Then, Rose says, "Your wife, huh?"

The Doctor grimaces. Then, he opens his mouth.

Rose stops him. "You don't need to explain," she says. "Just tell me one thing." She holds up her index finger. "Did you know?"

The Doctor takes a step forward. "Rose," he says.

"Did you _pluck_ me out of my universe knowing full-well that you married her?" When he doesn't respond, she shakes her head. "Why'd you do it? And don't say it's 'cause you need my help, 'cause I know you don't."

"I had to see you."

"That's selfish."

He turns his hands palms-up – a surrender. "The last memory I had before I walked out of that ridiculous Time Reversal Device…My last memory was of you. To me, I'd been talking to you…_seconds_ before. And oh, then I find out that putting a Time Lord into that machine creates a paradox big enough to rip the universe a new one." He begins to talk more animatedly; he paces around the console, wildly gesturing with splayed fingers. "There I was, standing there with the realization that there's another rift in the universe and, what, I was just supposed to drop the chance of seeing you again?" He looks at her. "At that moment, no, I had no idea I'd married Dr. Song – I thought she'd _died_. I mean, she was saved to a computer database, but that's an _alternate reality_ world. In fact, she's still in there. I don't even know if we _can_ save her."

Rose scrutinizes the Doctor; he's not one to make excuses for his mistakes. The fact that he is doing so says a lot – it makes Rose want to believe him. Despite this, she also wants to yell at him. It's unfair that she couldn't even stand to be with the Doctor's meta-crisis – almost an exact replica of the man she loved, and yet the Doctor, somehow, was able to find someone he was willing to _marry_. Someone who was completely different. Someone who wasn't Rose.

"I understand if you're angry. And if you want to leave, I'll take you home. I won't bother you again." He scratches his eyebrow. "I just thought…I just thought you'd want to be here," he finishes lamely.

Rose has to make a choice, but she knows that decisions are treacherous things. After all, that's how universes are formed in the first place – sometimes there are two choices, maybe more, but each will set off a chain of events. A timeline stems from each choice, and each timeline runs parallel to every other timeline. In one universe, Rose goes home. In another, she stays with the Doctor for, perhaps, their last adventure together. She just hopes that _this _Rose is making the right decision.

She may be furious with the Doctor for keeping secrets from her, but that's not enough to dent her faith in him. She sighs and looks at the Doctor. "'Course I want to be here." She takes his hand. "Now, can you change out of that tuxedo? You look ridiculous."

xxx

**This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but it was fun to write. Next up will be the Singing Towers. Are you excited? I'm excited. Please review with David Tennant on top. **


	6. Rain Check

"I wondered when you two might join us," says River with a sardonic smile as the Doctor, closely followed by Rose, steps out onto Darillium in his pinstripe suit and coat. The ground is made of craggy purplish rock, though in some areas, the purple runs grey. Spotted here and there are what appear to be flowers: tube-shaped white blooms growing on scarlet stalks. Although these flowers are quite peculiar in appearance, they are not the strangest things about Darillium. The strangest, perhaps, is the dull hum that reverberates beneath the Doctor's feet. Or, rather, the chorus of hums.

Rose looks at the sky and its millions of winking stars – all are bright enough to light their way. "It's night," she says in a distracted sort of way. "It's beautiful."

The Doctor smiles. "It's always night here." He crouches down beside one of the tube-shaped blooms. "There is no sun. Well," he adds, "there is, but it's not close enough to be any real help to this planet. Not close enough to make a distinction between day and night."

"Then how can that plant grow properly?" Rory asks. "How are we even able to step out onto this planet at all? Shouldn't we be freezing to death?"

The Doctor smiles again. "All are excellent questions, Rory." He jumps to his feet and cocks his head at them. "Let's find out, shall we?"

There don't appear to be any signs of civilization. There are no buildings or structures of any sort. There are only mountains of purple rocks in every direction. In fact, the Doctor and his companions appear to be in some kind of valley. The Doctor, realizing this, points off at the lowest mountain ridge. "Maybe," he says, "if we can mount that ridge, we'll be able to get our bearings."

"You did promise me some towers," says River coyly as she starts off in the direction indicated. Her boots crunch against the porous rock, and soon she is far ahead of the rest of the group. The Doctor chases after her, leaving the rest of them behind.

There is something that is bothering the Doctor – something that happened in the Library. In the Library, River whispered the Doctor's name in his ear so that he would trust her. And in the conversation between Past Amy and River just after the crash of the _Byzantium_, the original story was that the Doctor told River his name during their wedding; this, of course, was false, as the Teselecta-as-the-Doctor told River the truth – that he was not dead. That wouldn't make sense, anyway, because the only way the Doctor could have told River his name was if he was dying without the chance of regeneration.

But, as this is the last time the Doctor will see River before she goes to the Library, the question remains: how is he still alive? She has to currently know his name for her to be able to tell it to his past self, but that would also mean he'd have to have died in River's timeline. _Or_, he thinks to himself, _maybe I only thought I was dying. _He racks his brain, measuring any and all solutions. The only thing he saw in the journal was when he paid Hitler a visit, and River ended up using all of her regenerations to save his life. However, there were no details as to whether or not the Doctor told River his name. The only way to know for sure is if he asks River. _Losing my memories, _thinks the Doctor, _has been such a pain. _

The Doctor clears his throat. "This may seem like an odd question," he says, "but do you know my name?"

River glances over at him. "Of course I do, _sweetie_."

"I mean my real name," he says. "My true name."

She frowns. "Remind me…Where are you in your timeline again?"

"We're married," he insists, taking out his journal and flipping to the proper page to prove it. "See?"

"Then you should know the answer," she says, her eyes twinkling. "You told me your name the first time I ever met you."

So, it _was _when they went back to Hitler's day, when River, according to the journal, kissed the Doctor with some toxic lipstick. "Right," says the Doctor. "I know. I was just reminding you. Knowing my name might get you out of a tough spot someday. That's all." When she looks at him questioningly, he steals the last word she said before she sacrificed herself in the Library, and he says, "Spoilers." He thumbs back at the others. "I'm going to get them to hurry up. Be back."

When the Doctor joins the others, Amy sidles up next to the Doctor. "So, you give your screwdriver to River here. So what? Why can't you do it already?"

"We have to find the Singing Towers," says the Doctor calmly. "It has to be this way because River _told me_." The Doctor still feels guilty that he's using River's own words as instructions to lead her, possibly, to her death. He wonders if he should tell her the truth – that he's a version of the Doctor who only remembers her from a single event that hasn't even happened to her yet. That way, he's not completely deceiving her.

"And," says Rose, not bothering to hide her bitterness, "he's procrastinating."

The Doctor glances at her. "Still angry," he notes. "Can't imagine why."

"See," says Rory, narrowing his eyes and looking between the Doctor and Rose, "she's mad because you went and married someone who's not her. Your excuse is rotten as any – oh, you can't remember? Just because you can't remember doing something, it doesn't change what you've done."

Everyone stares at Rory. Rose, then, quickens her pace to catch up with River.

Rory frowns. "Just trying to help."

"Thank you, Rory," says the Doctor through his teeth.

Amy drapes her arm around her husband. "You're hopeless," she tells Rory.

xxx

"Rose," says River in surprise when Rose catches up to her. At this point, the ground begins to take an incline, and the mountains loom above them.

"I figured you could use some company," Rose lies, wiping the sweat from her brow as she cautiously picks her way up the side of the mountain. The humming is loud in Rose's ears – louder, in fact, than it was when they first stepped from the TARDIS. "What _is _that?" she asks, more out of frustrating than curiosity. "It's driving me mad."

"They aren't called the Singing Towers for nothing," River replies, and her tone is just as coy as it ever is with the Doctor. Perhaps this is just her way of speaking. River, glancing over at Rose, seems to sense something because she asks, "Something on your mind, dear?"

"It's just…I've known the Doctor for a long time." Rose chooses her words carefully. "I just never saw him as someone who'd ever marry. I wondered – not to disrespect – but, why you?"

River is silent long enough to make things awkward. Finally, she says, "I suppose the best answer I can offer is: it's complicated. Who can ever know what the Doctor is thinking?" She laughs a light, attractive laugh. "Perhaps it's the fact that I'm the closest thing he has to another Time Lord. Or, my 'time head,' as my mother puts it."

Rose is stunned. "You can regenerate, then?"

"Past tense," River replies. "I used up all of my regenerations when the Doctor was dying."

"You saved him?" Rose's voice is quiet. How can she be resentful of a woman who has given her life – no, _multiple _lives – to save the Doctor? River's done it before and she'll do it again when she arrives at the Library. Rose looks down at the strange purple rock beneath her feet, and she suddenly gets it; of course the Doctor loves River. She's completely and inarguably worthy. And this makes it all the more worse.

"Are you done with your questions? Good. I have a few for you." River looks at Rose. "For one," River asks, "what in the name of Gallifrey has happened to the Doctor?"

xxx

"What about me?" the Doctor asks, coming up behind River and Rose. They spin to face him. River's face is deadpan and inscrutable, though Rose's eyes are wide with surprise. The Doctor grins. "Not talking about me, are you?"

River smirks and pinches the Doctor's chin. "I'm always talking about you."

Rose rolls her eyes and continues climbing. They're nearly to the top of the ridge. Rose reaches the top first. She stops, and gasps. _"Doctor,"_ she says.

River and the Doctor look at each other before increasing the speed of their climb and joining Rose at the top. Below them, on the other side of the mountains, is an expanse of field completely covered by the tube-shaped flowers. And, in the center, pillars of rock stand in a circular formation. But that's not all – now that they've cleared the mountains, the hum of the rocks becomes clear – not just one flat line hum, but a combination of voices. It's as if every rock and every flower is singing together. Or, perhaps, it's the towers themselves.

Each of the towers, made from the same purplish rock, twist to a point at the top. The towers are twisted in such a way that a pathway spirals around each of them – from the base to the top.

"They must go up for miles," says Amy, breathless.

"I, for one, am anxious to find out," says River.

xxx

They reach the base of the towers. The tallest tower is in the center of the circle. River presses her hand against it and looks up at it. She looks over her shoulder at the others and smiles. "What are we waiting for, then? Come on, you lot."

Rose starts to follow her, but Amy holds her back. "Let her and the Doctor go alone," says Amy. Amy drops her voice to a whisper. "This is the last time the Doctor sees her before…" She trails off, but Rose understands her completely. _Before River dies. _

The Doctor is already on the pathway up the tower. "Aren't you all coming?" he asks, standing beside River.

"We're alright down here, thanks," says Rory. Rose can tell that Rory is thankful that he doesn't have to march up one of those things. After all, the towers are quite tall.

The Doctor shrugs. "We'll be back quick as we can." He looks at Rose, and there is some kind of understanding in his eyes. _Thanks_, he seems to be telling her. His hands are shoved deep into his pockets, and Rose has the feeling that in one of his pockets, a fist is tightly clenching a screwdriver.

After a while, the Doctor and River are merely dots on the starry skyline. Rose sits down on the ground, resting her back against the tower. Rory and Amy follow suit.

"So," says Rose, "do you think the Doctor can rescue her? From the Library, I mean."

Amy and Rory look at each other. "He'll find a way," says Amy. "He always does."

"She's certainly worth it," says Rose glumly. "I heard she used all her regenerations to save his life once."

Amy laughs. "Only after she poisoned him in the first place."

Rose looks at her sharply. "What?"

"They have a confusing relationship," Rory explains. "More so than me and this one." He gestures to Amy. Then, he tips his head up to look up at the tower he rests his back against. "I wonder what they're going to talk about up there."

xxx

"Spit it out," says River as they reach the top. They collapse, breathless, at the end of the pathway. The Doctor peels off his coat and looks out at the expanse of white flowers before them.

"Spit what out?" the Doctor asks.

"Whatever secret you're keeping from me," she says.

The Doctor hesitates. Of course he can't tell her about her impending death in the Library, but perhaps he could tell her about losing a fight with a Time Reversal Device. So he does, to an extent. Instead of telling her how Eleven's physical body was reversed, he just says that he's lost many of his memories. He lets her keep thinking that he's a future regeneration of the Doctor she knew.

"So, you don't know who I am?" she asks, looking horrified.

"We've met," the Doctor replies. "And I know everything from this journal." He holds up the blue book. "I'm just hazy on some of the details." He smiles at her. "I do know you, Professor Song. You're one of the bravest people I've ever met."

She dangles her legs over the side of the tower. "Professor?" she questions. "I have my doctorate, Doctor," she says, "but I'm no professor."

The Doctor sits beside her. "Well," he says. "Not yet." He sighs and unfolds his coat to take his screwdriver out of its pocket. He looks down at it. Suddenly, he sees being shoved into a Time Reversal Device as a blessing. If he were his eleventh regeneration – complete with all of his fond memories of River – it would be impossible for him to go along with what he is about to do.

The Doctor feels his face crumple. How selfish is he that he is able to send this woman to die for him? He knows she would do it, anyway, if he told her the truth. No questions asked. Perhaps that is what makes it so much worse. He bows his head, staring down at the screwdriver. He can't help but wonder…Did the Doctor walk into the Device on purpose? Is he that much of a coward that he can't face River himself? And the fact that he's been so wrapped up in Rose makes him hate himself even more. How is it that the Doctor can, simultaneously, hurt the girl he currently loves as well as betray the woman he doesn't even remember loving?

"What's wrong?" River asks, alarmed. She swipes her thumb beneath his left eye, preventing a tear from rolling down his cheek. "You'll get your memories back," she says. "Don't worry. I'll help you."

"No," he says quickly, scrubbing his face with his hands. "It's not that. I just…" He shakes his head. He shoves the screwdriver into River's hands. "I want you to have this."

She looks at it, her face blank. "Your sonic screwdriver? I can't take this."

"Yes, you can," says the Doctor. "I want you to keep it on you at all times, do you understand?" He can barely look at her trusting face. How is it that everyone has such blind faith in him? How is he able to deserve anyone's trust? His guilt weighs so heavily on him that he can't stop the tears from spilling down his cheeks. Rose. Amy. Rory. River. All of them. He'll end up having hurt _all of them_. And what of his other companions? Martha and Donna? He doesn't even know what's become of them.

Sometimes, the Doctor wonders if he's ruined more lives than he's helped.

River pockets the screwdriver and then takes the Doctor's face between her hands. "Sweetie," she says, "I don't know why you're upset, but we'll fix it. Understand?"

The Doctor slowly nods.

"But as for now," River continues, "think of where we are." She sweeps her hand out in front of her. "We're on the most beautiful planet in the universe." The song of the towers shifts from sad and mournful to excited. The song becomes joyful, and it grows louder and louder. "See?" says River. "So, whatever it is, forget about it. Everything will work out. I'm sure of it."

xxx

"Isn't it a bit odd that there are no aliens walking around?" Amy asks, accidentally chipping a piece of rock off the side of the tower. She tosses it, and it skips a couple of times against the ground.

"I think this whole planet is a bit odd," Rory replies, looking up at the stars. "Like how it keeps a warm enough temperature to not turn us into popsicles."

"Maybe it's the singing," says Rose, pressing her hand against the ground. "The singing, coming from these towers, makes the whole planet vibrate." The singing, in the past couple hours, has gotten louder.

"Yeah," says Rory, suddenly interested. "Maybe it creates enough friction to provide heat." The ground, after all, is quite warm. Warmer than rock should be, anyway. He points at the flowers. "The heat allows the flowers to survive. And maybe the flowers give enough oxygen to allow _us _to breathe."

Amy looks impressed.

"Don't look at me like that," says Rory. "I can figure things out…on occasion. I just don't know how the flowers can survive without enough sunlight…"

Suddenly, the ground begins to rumble beneath them, and the singing grows even louder and louder until it's a deafening roar. They all clamp their hands over their ears and look at each other fearfully.

"We have to get the Doctor," Rose mouths to them. Before she can even stand up, however, River and the Doctor slide to a stop in front of them. The Doctor grabs Rose's wrists and lifts her up.

_"Time to go," _he bellows over the singing. He points towards the field of flowers. Together, Rose, the Doctor, River, Rory, and Amy break out into a run. The flowers snap and fold beneath their feet as they race to the TARDIS.

"What's going on?" Rose shouts to the Doctor as they fly side-by-side, her fingers in his.

"This planet – this whole planet," he yells, his feet pounding against the ground, "is a hive."

"A hive?" Rose demands. They've reached the base of the mountains. They have to climb up and over the ridge to get back to their precious TARDIS.

"All that singing?" the Doctor says, letting go of Rose's hand to scramble up the rock. "It comes from the Darilliumites. They live under the ground."

Rose looks over her shoulder. Black, reptilian beasts flood down the sides of each of the towers. Their song has turned into a menacing screeching sound.

xxx

"I think the towers were the entrances to the hive," the Doctor adds as they stumble down the other side of the mountain. Rose falls, ripping the knee of her slacks. The Doctor stops to help her up. The others are ahead of them – already half-way to the TARDIS. River seems to realize that they've left the Doctor behind because she stops and turns to them.

"Go!" the Doctor bellows at River.

Blood drips freely from Rose's knee. The Doctor, seeing this, roughly picks Rose up in his arms and brings her close to his chest. This has slowed down the Doctor's pace a bit, but he's still ahead of the Darilliumites. Or, so he thinks.

There is a snarling sound close behind them. Rose screams. _"Doctor, one's right behind you."_

River is suddenly barreling towards them. "Hey!" she yells at the beast closest to the Doctor. "Over here, you great brute!"

"River, _no_," says the Doctor as River takes off to the side. The beast, distracted, changes its course to follow River. The Doctor reaches the TARDIS and unceremoniously drops Rose on the floor. Then, he turns to help River.

But River is just standing still as the beast, roughly lizard-like in shape, slithers towards her. River looks at the Doctor.

_"River,"_ he yells.

River smiles and slaps the vortex manipulator on her wrist. In a flash of white, she disappears. The Darilliumite halts, clearly stunned by this change of events. The Doctor, acting quickly, shuts the door of the TARDIS. _"Allons-y!" _

xxx

"Where did she go?" Amy asks.

"To become a professor," says the Doctor, smiling sadly. "And then to the Library, which is where we'll be heading next." Currently, they're orbiting around a star.

"This adventure never ends, does it?" Amy asks, looking exhausted. Rory rubs his eyes.

Rose looks down at her feet. She dreads the moment that their adventure actually comes to a close. Because when it does, it means she'll have to go home and be forever separated from her Doctor. Again.

"You two should get some rest," says the Doctor, looking at Amy and Rory.

Amy and Rory slowly make their way to the back room. Rose stays with the Doctor and sits down on the steps to the console.

"You should get some rest too, Rose," says the Doctor softly.

"I'm not tired," she replies. She looks down at her bloodied knee. "Looks bad, doesn't it?"

The Doctor kneels next to her with a first aid kit and rolls up her left pant leg to get a better look at her knee. Rose feels his hand brush her leg, and she suppresses a shiver. He cleans away the blood with a cotton ball and dabs some alcohol on the wound.

He raises his warm brown eyes to her. "I think you'll live," he says humorously.

Rose holds his eye contact. "And you?" she questions. "How are you doing?"

"I just sent a woman to her death," he says. "But I think it will be okay."

"How?" Rose asks.

The Doctor places a bandage over Rose's knee and slowly unrolls her pant leg to cover it. "Gut feeling," he responds. He grins at her. "We're going to be okay too."

"How can you _know?_" she asks, this time more insistently.

He cups her chin in his hands. "I can't know," he says, "but I just do." He leans forward, as if to kiss her, but stops. He sighs and stands up to return to the console.

Disappointed, Rose joins him at the console. "How can you do that?" She doesn't bother hiding her frustration. It's been eight years since she last said goodbye to the Doctor…and the Doctor can't even bring himself to kiss her?

"How can I do what?" he asks, eyebrows aloft.

"Don't play dumb," she says accusingly, rounding on him. He presses his back against the console, unsuccessful in getting away from her.

"Rose," he says, "I've messed your life up enough."

"Yeah, you _have_," she says. "So, you owe me."

His eyebrows are in danger of completely disappearing into his hairline. "I don't know what you mean."

She pulls him by the tie to lower his face to hers. "Yeah, Doctor, you do." As soon as she presses her lips against his, he stops struggling. He stands there, limp. Then, he winds his fingers through her hair. He draws her in close, and returns her kiss. Rose folds into the warmth of his chest and breathes in his scent. His kisses become feverish. He clutches her by the shoulders and spins her, pushing her against the console. She climbs on top of it, her hands securely locked on each side of his face.

Suddenly, he stops. He pulls away from her, his breathing ragged. "I'm sorry," he gasps, looking horrified. He shakes his head. "I can't, I'm sorry."

Rose stares at him.

"I want to," he explains. "I do. But…"

"It wouldn't be right," she finishes for him. "You just sent her to her death." She can't bring herself to say River's name.

"My feelings haven't changed for you," he says, taking a step forward. "I _don't_ love River. I admire her, and I think she's a hero, but I don't love her." He hesitates. "But if I…If we do this…It would feel too much like I just used River to save myself."

"I know, Doctor," Rose says. "I get it."

He kisses her again. "I'm sorry."

"You know what this means, don't you?" she asks. When the Doctor doesn't reply, Rose says, "It means we've got to get ourselves to that blasted Library and rescue River. You can kiss me later."

He grins at her. "A rain check." He nods. "I can live with that."

xxx

**I'll have another update soon (hopefully), as I already have the next chapter half written. Leave a review, please. **


	7. Rule Number Two

The Doctor stands in the underbelly of the empty Library. He stares at the screwdriver jammed into its core. Oddly enough, the bars of green light on the side of the screwdriver no longer flare with life. Perhaps the entirety of her data ghost has been absorbed into the database. Unfortunately, the Doctor's been standing there for hours trying to figure out how to get River out of the computer. There's been no such luck.

"I gave her the screwdriver," says the Doctor miserably. "To me, it was proof I could save her." He rakes his fingers through his hair. "What if I was wrong? What if all of this – seeing River in the Library and her leading me to give her past self the screwdriver…What if all of this was for nothing?" He points at the computer. "She's in there, and there's nothing I can do about it."

Rose laces her fingers through his. "As long as she's in there, she's alive, Doctor."

"Physically, she's dead," says the Doctor, taking his hand from Rose's and sitting on the floor. He slumps against the iron beam that River had once chained him to – an event that seemed to have happened ages ago. "She only exists virtually."

"So, what happened to her body?"

"Body?" the Doctor asks distractedly. "There was no b – " He stops midsentence. He looks at Rose. "There was no _body_." He scrambles to his feet and takes Rose's face between his hands. "Rose," he cries, roughly kissing her cheek, "you're _brilliant_."

"I am?" she asks.

"Doctor?" Amy questions.

"When Donna went into CAL," says the Doctor in a rush, "her face was put on one of those information drones – the Nodes. But her body, her physical body, was gone." He spins around and claps his hands. "But River, oh _River_, was different. She unknowingly saved her data ghost on my screwdriver." He points at it, still jammed into the computer's core. "For that to work, she would have already been dead."

Amy's face falls. "So she _is _dead?"

"Yes," says the Doctor excitedly. "Like her crew, when they were attacked by the Vashta Nerada – their bodies were still there. They were walking corpses with their data ghosts playing their voices. But their bodies _were there_. River gave her life to rescue everyone in CAL. She went virtual only after I put the screwdriver in the core. _After she died_. So her body wasn't just materialized by CAL; if it were, I would be able to rescue her now. Her body couldn't be materialized because she was already dead."

"What's your point?" Rory asks.

"She died," the Doctor reiterates. "This is true. Unavoidable. But," and the Doctor holds up a finger, "when River connected herself to the core, I was chained to this beam. There was a bright white light, and when it died, River was gone. I didn't think anything of it because when Donna went into CAL, she left nothing behind. But River hadn't yet gone into CAL. Not then." He grins.

His companions stare at him.

"Where, then," says the Doctor slowly, "is River's body?"

Well, no one has an answer to that.

He turns to the screwdriver, still jammed in the core. He hesitates before wrapping his fingers around it.

"Doctor?" Amy questions. "Doctor, what are you doing?"

He yanks the screwdriver out of the console.

_"Doctor, no!" _Amy cries.

"Trust me," he says, pocketing the screwdriver. "We have to get back to the TARDIS." He looks at Rose. "You," he says, touching her cheek, "are a genius. I knew bringing you along was the right thing to do."

xxx

_I could do it now_, the Doctor thinks, looking at his past self shackled to the beam. River is hooking herself up to the database. The Doctor and his companions have gone back in the Doctor's timeline to the point in the Library where River was planning to sacrifice herself to rescue all the saved souls in CAL. _I could take her place. _

He shakes his head. _No, _he argues silently. _I know the risks of toying with time more than anyone._

"Time can be rewritten," the Doctor's past self says, as if trying to convince the current Doctor.

"Not those times," says River, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Not one line. Don't you dare."

The Doctor looks away from them. He doesn't want to hear this conversation – not again. He doesn't want to hear himself begging to take her place or asking River how she knows his name, his true name. The computer countdown is down to three seconds.

River, still speaking, holds two ends of a circuit in her hands; she's planning to connect them. "Spoilers," she finishes, bringing the ends together.

_It's now or never_, the Doctor thinks as the room is flooded in bright white light. He races to River, wrapping his arms around her torso and dragging her away from the computer. He glances at his past self – the Past Doctor's eyes are firmly shut against the light. The Doctor lifts River in his arms and runs from the light, squinting to see. Her body is still in his grasp and her head lolls back, exposing her throat.

The TARDIS is there, waiting for him. Rose stands at the door, looking at him with sad eyes. She steps aside so he can quickly enter. She shuts the door behind him and River.

The Doctor drops to his knees and lays River down on the floor of the TARDIS. No pulse. He puts his hand against River's face. She's no longer breathing. Tears are still on her cheeks from her conversation with the Doctor's past self. She's dead.

He looks up at Amy and Rory, who stand there with grief-stricken faces. He still hasn't told them the plan – a plan so wrong that he can barely think of it without feeling sick. He stands up, abandoning River's corpse to get to the console.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" asks Amy. "We have to _do _something."

The Doctor ignores her and fiddles with the controls.

_"Doctor," _she pleads.

_"I know, Amy," _the Doctor bellows. He turns on her and, seeing her crumpled face, his voice softens. "I'm workingon it." He turns back to the console. "All I need," he says, "is more _time._"

xxx

"What are we doing here again?" Amy asks as they step out onto the streets of London. There are banners depicting Marcus Lazarus, advertising his unveiling. "The tenth of December," she says, wide-eyed. Her cheeks are stained with tears.

"2017," the Doctor says. He hugs River's body to his as he crosses the street.

"Doctor," says Amy, chasing after him. By the tone of her voice, she seems to understand. "Doctor, you're not doing what I think you're doing…"

The Doctor spins. "Amy," he says. "Go back inside. You and Rory can't come with us. Activate the chameleon circuit. If we time this right, we'll be able to just miss our past selves."

"Doctor, you _can't_," says Amy, desperate. "I want River back more than anyone, but…"

The Doctor ignores her. "Rose, come with me."

Rose crosses the street to meet the Doctor on the sidewalk. The Doctor knows where Lazarus's office is because he remembers fleeing from it when he first stepped from the Time Reversal Device.

The Doctor pokes his head through the door to the lobby. A secretary sits at the front desk, her fingernails tapping against a keyboard. The Doctor turns to Rose. "Distract the woman behind the desk." He struggles to get his psychic paper out of his pocket while still holding River. Finally, he gets the wallet out, and he hands it to Rose. "Use this. Do whatever it takes. I have to get River through that door without that woman seeing me."

"What are you about to do?" asks Rose. Her voice sounds fearful.

"I'm going to help her cheat death," he says, "because, apparently, I'm an expert."

xxx

Rose is able to distract the secretary with a lie of being a health inspector and – _"Oh my god, is that a roach behind you?"_ When the secretary turns to look at her awful-looking wallpaper, the Doctor streaks past them to the opposite door, clutching River to his chest. He takes the stairs rather than the lift, working his way back to the room with the Time Reversal Device. The door is locked.

The Doctor curses and fumbles for his screwdriver, the screwdriver he only recently recovered from the Library. He aims it at the doorknob. The lock clicks, and the Doctor pushes open the door.

The device stands before him. He stumbles towards it, shifting River's weight in his arms. He places River in the chamber and turns to the controls. All he needs to do is reverse her a couple minutes – after all, in real time, she's only just died. But the controls only allow the participant in the machine to go back by years, not minutes.

He hesitates. What if he were to reverse her to the first day she met him? To the point where she'd already used up her regenerations (as to not upset the order of the universe anymore than it was already upset) but before she was able to know the Doctor well enough to love him utterly and completely. Then, he'd stop the machine from returning her memories to her in the final process of the Time Reversal Device. He could be with Rose without having the guilt of River plaguing the back of his mind.

He closes his eyes, briefly, before opening them and pressing a couple buttons on the device. He steps back to watch the process.

A red laser light scans River. Then, there is a flash of yellow-white light. The Doctor takes a step forward, hesitantly. _No_, he thinks. _I can't._ The red laser light returns, scanning River, who is crumpled on the floor of the device; it's returning her memories. The Doctor lets out a breath he didn't realized he'd been holding in.

Then, everything stops.

The Doctor opens the chamber. A now-alive River looks up at him from the floor. Her eyes are a bit glazed, but she blinks and looks around. She doesn't seem very concerned with how she managed to end up in a machine in 2017. Instead, when her eyes land on the Doctor, she breaks into a smile. "Hello, sweetie," she says. She climbs to her feet and steps out of the device, now dressed in camouflage rather than in her white space suit from the Library. "Managed to rescue me, I see."

"You don't look very surprised," says the Doctor.

"Oh, I knew you'd manage it," she replies dismissively.

The Doctor gives her a quizzical look.

"For me, it was a long time ago," she starts to explain, "but one day, I was mailed my journal. The journal from my _future_ self. Along with it was a screwdriver." She points to the screwdriver in the Doctor's hand. "That one."

The Doctor stares at her. "I don't understand," he says.

She looks at him knowingly. "We never meet in the right order, Doctor. You know that. Right now, in my timeline, you've never given me the screwdriver."

"Yes, I _have_," he says.

River smiles. "Rule number one: the Doctor lies. Rule number two: so do I." Seeing the Doctor's face, River hastens to explain. "That night on Darillium," she says. "You gave the screwdriver to my future self. She – I – explained it all in my journal. She knew who you were as soon as she saw you, and she knew that you would hand her the screwdriver."

"So," he says, "on the tower…She, you…" Sometimes, all this time _stuff _even confuses the Doctor.

"In the journal," says River, "my future self explained that I had to go to the Library and sacrifice myself for you. That it would be okay because you would later rescue me. I was told to tell you about our night on Darillium so that _you_, later on, would know to find me to give my future self the screwdriver. I lied to you in the Library, telling you things that hadn't even happened to _me_ yet."

"That's impossible," says the Doctor, gesturing emphatically. "We went to you just after the crash of the _Byzantium_. When you went to tell the Ponds I'd faked my death. You couldn't have been your future self."

River frowns. "I left Amy and Rory without saying goodbye. They'd wanted me to spend the night…but as soon as they were both upstairs, I left. I had to get back to my prison cell."

The Doctor tries to work everything out in his head. So, when River visited the Ponds to tell them that the Doctor's eleventh regeneration was still alive, she left without saying goodbye. Immediately afterwards, her future self, the self that had been just rescued by the Doctor and the Time Reversal Device, appeared in the kitchen of the Pond residence to finish the wine she'd left sitting on the counter years before. Then, the Doctor told River to come with him. She agreed because she knew she had to help him rescue her past self.

Realization dawns on the Doctor. "Well," he says, understanding. "You should probably go back to say goodbye."

River smiles at him.

"Where is River now?" the Doctor finally asks. "Where's the River that I spoke to at the Singing Towers?"

"According to what she wrote in the journal," River says, "she'll be meeting you soon." She looks at the vortex manipulator on her wrist. "Very soon. You still have the journal, right? The one I handed you in the Library?"

"It's in the TARDIS," the Doctor replies.

"Good," she says. "My future self will be needing that after she sends her journal to my past self." She smiles. "I have to go now. But before I leave, I have one more thing to tell you."

"What?" the Doctor asks, stepping closer.

"Your screwdriver," she says. "Dear, I know you gave it to future me with the intention of saving me to the database. But…"

"But what?" he asks.

She smiles. "It's supposed to save _you_." Saying nothing more, River slaps the vortex manipulator on her wrist and, in a flash, she's gone.

xxx

**I decided to make this chapter short because there's a lot going on, and I didn't want to confuse you guys even more than you already would be. If you're confused, this might help:**

**My River timeline: River climbs out of the **_**Byzantium. **_**River visits the Ponds to tell them that Eleven faked his death. River leaves the Ponds without saying goodbye so that she can return to her prison cell. River receives a sonic screwdriver and a journal from her future self. River becomes a professor. River goes to the Library and meets Ten. River sacrifices herself to rescue the people saved to the Library database. River dies, leaving her screwdriver and journal to Ten and Donna. Eleven-now-Ten takes River's dead body to the Time Reversal Device of 2017. River comes back to life and talks to Eleven-now-Ten. River zaps away to return to the Ponds' kitchen to "say goodbye." River answers a knock at the Ponds' door to see Eleven-now-Ten in a tuxedo. He takes her to Darillium. He gives her his screwdriver. She zaps away while being chased by a Darilliumite. This is the most current River. In the future, this River will send her past self the screwdriver and the journal. **

**Man, I hope this makes sense, and you're not just drooling at all of this. Okay. Well, review. If you're still confused, I'll do my best to explain. Unless you're not confused and I'm being really condescending right now, in which case…I'm sorry. **


	8. Between the Eyes

**Remember in the first chapter when the dog chases the Ponds down the hallway at Lazarus's office? And the 11****th**** Doctor has a chat with it? You may want to remember that. Just a friendly suggestion. **

**Also, it was requested that I provide a brief summary of the previous chapter at the start of every new chapter. So, basically, River dies in the Library, and the Doctor takes her body to 2017 Earth and puts it into the Time Reversal Device. She pops back up alive and reveals that she knew, all along, what would happen because the River that the Doctor chilled with on Darillium was Library River's FUTURE self. (Darillium River warned Library River of everything that would happen). Then, at the end of the chapter, River tells the Doctor that the screwdriver was never intended to rescue her. It's supposed to save the Doctor. So, currently, we're in 2017 Earth, and River's just left. **

xxx

"What?" the Doctor asks to the empty room. _"What?" _He spins around. "What am I supposed to do with _that_ information?"

"Doctor?"

He glances over; Rose is standing in the doorway.

"Did it work?" she asks. "Did you save River?"

"Yes," he says, miserably. "Though, of course, River has to go and make things more complicated." He pauses. "What are you doing in here?"

"I was waiting in the lobby for you, but then I saw three people out the window. It was you – um, the other you – and the Ponds. I came up here to warn you."

The Doctor rushes towards the door and pokes his head out.

"Mind the dog," Rose warns.

There's a dog sleeping in the hallway – it wasn't there before. It's shaggy and has a collar, on which is a nametag. _Rufus_, it reads. The Doctor ignores the dog, briefly, to look down the hall. His past self – the one with the bowtie and floppy hair – is getting through a different door; it must be the door to Lazarus's office. Amy and Rory are with him.

"Soon," says the Doctor, "they'll be coming here because this is the room I came out of. We need to hide." He looks at the dog. Perhaps he can use the dog as a distraction. "Rufus," he hisses.

The dog jerks awake.

"Rufus, listen to me," he says. "If anyone comes this way, chase them."

Rufus cocks his head.

"Are you talking to that dog?" Rose demands, bewildered. "Doctor, I know you've gone through an ordeal and all that with losing your memories, but – "

"Not now, Rose," says the Doctor.

"What if…" says Rose suddenly. "If that dog can understand you, what if you tell him to warn yourself?"

"What?" the Doctor asks.

"Yeah…" says Rose slowly. She reaches out and strokes the dog's head. "Like…tell it to tell your past self to watch out for any suspicious-looking devices, or whatever. Kind of like me and Bad Wolf."

"You understand," says the Doctor, "that if I do that, there is the chance that you won't be sitting here talking to me." He looks at her. "If I warn this dog and my past self listens, it will be as if none of this ever happened. You. Saving River. All of it."

Rose meets his eyes. "I know."

He rips his gaze from her and stares at the dog. Finally, he says, "I can't."

She says nothing to this.

"In fact, I think I'll do the opposite." He takes the dog's face between his palms. There are footsteps down the corridor as the Ponds investigate, but the Doctor pays them no mind. "Tell the man with the bowtie that everything will be alright, no matter what happens. Tell him not to tell the Ponds what I said because they won't understand. They'll try to stop him. And tell him…" Doctor pauses to look at Rose. "Tell him he'll get to see her again." The Doctor releases the dog. "Now, please, Rufus…Go chase those Ponds."

The dog jumps up, growling, and takes off down the hallway. The Doctor grabs Rose and pulls her back into the room with the device. He shuts the door and locks it, just as Amy's past self cries in horrified surprise. The Doctor and Rose crouch down behind the device. They stay there for a few moments, listening. After a while, there are footsteps down the corridor again.

"Doctor," Rose whispers. "What did you mean back there?"

"What?" he asks distractedly. "Back where?"

"The whole 'tell him he'll get to see her again.' Her, who? Were you talking about me…Or, were you talking about River?"

"Rose, I – "

The Doctor is interrupted by the turning of the doorknob. The fluorescent lights flick on overhead, having been activated by Lazarus's keycard. He strolls in, followed closely by the Doctor's past self and his companions.

The current Doctor ducks down over Rose. He listens to the conversation between his past self and Marcus Lazarus. "It sure is a beauty," his past self says, examining the machine. Rose and the Doctor nervously edge away from the side of the device that the past Doctor is inspecting. After a few moments, Lazarus puts his dog into the machine to prove he can turn it into a puppy again.

Then, it's the past Doctor's turn.

"You disapprove of him so much that you killed him," Marcus says to the past Doctor, accusing him of murdering his father. Marcus shoves the past Doctor into the Time Reversal Device. The current Doctor hesitates – he could stop all of this now, if he wanted. He could even stop Rory from taking his past self out of the machine too early.

But, like everything, it would have consequences. What if the Doctor's memories were returned to the past Doctor? He might have the sense not to pursue Rose, and the Doctor would end up crouching behind the machine alone, saving himself without the memory of Rose helping him do it. The Doctor shakes his head; it hurts his brain to think about it.

But then he remembers something – the thing that River told him before she zapped away: _"It's supposed to save _you_."_ He yanks his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and holds it up. He stares at it, running his free hand through his hair. "Of _course_," he says softly as Rory clocks Lazarus in the face and prematurely stops the machine. The Doctor looks at Rose. "What would I do without my companions?" If the screwdriver was built to save River's entire data ghost, it most definitely can save a couple hundred years of memories. With that realization, the Doctor jams it into the Time Reversal Device and grins as the bars on the side of the screwdriver flare green.

xxx

Rose and the Doctor meet Amy and Rory back outside by the currently invisible TARDIS. The Doctor holds up his screwdriver triumphantly and gives it an enthusiastic wiggle. _"Looky at what I gotttt,"_ he says in a sing-song voice.

Rory cranes his neck to look behind the Doctor. "Where's River?" he asks. He seems remarkably uninterested in the screwdriver.

Amy, meanwhile, is in hysterics. She, too, demands to know where River is.

"Oh, lay off," says the Doctor, making a face. "She's fine. Actually, she's suppose to meet up with us very – "

River appears out of nowhere in her classic camouflage get-up.

" – soon," the Doctor finishes. He lowers his screwdriver, disheartened. He scowls at River. "Tell me, River, how was Darillium?" His tone is accusatory.

"I was just there, actually," she says, smiling. "So, all caught up are we?" She lets her hair down from its ponytail and fluffs it a bit. She pauses, seeing the look on the Doctor's face. "You're angry," she says, surprised. She lowers her arms. "I wasn't expecting that."

"You could have _told _me you knew how this all would pan out," the Doctor says as he pushes the door to the invisible TARDIS open. He turns and points his screwdriver at her like a knife. "You could have told me on Darillium that I'd find a way to save you or that you even knew about what I'd be saving you from!"

"I _did_," River says, exasperated. She and the others slip into the TARDIS behind him. "And I know because, for me, it was just a couple of minutes ago. I told you everything would work out fine. And I was right, wasn't I? Quit being a child about it."

"You," the Doctor says, still pointing at her, "are in_fur_iating."

"We're both alive," River says. "That's the important thing." She looks at the screwdriver. "So, that worked, then? Saved your memories?"

"Yes," says the Doctor, abandoning his frustration for a more cheerful tone. "And thanks for doing that."

River takes a journal from her pocket. She holds it up. "Thank me for doing it now." She scribbles a couple words in her journal with a pen. "Now that I know for sure it worked, I can write it in here to remind my past self to remind _you _to save your memories. And when I send _this _journal off, I'll need my other one back to replace it."

"We've got it," says the Doctor. "But you already know that." He grins.

"You didn't read it, did you?" she asks sternly. "Because some of it I haven't written down yet…so it hasn't happened."

"Of course I didn't read it," he says. "Though I think it's a bit unfair that you know what's going to happen and I don't."

River smiles. She digs into her pocket again and pulls out a screwdriver, the one that the Doctor gave to her on Darillium. "I have this too," she says.

"Two screwdrivers," says the Doctor, looking at the one in his hand. "Brilliant."

"I have time before I need to send the journal and the screwdriver off. In the meantime, I think you should use the empty screwdriver." River hands the screwdriver back to the Doctor. "Keep your memories in a safe place." Her eyes fall on Rose. "Or keep them with someone safe."

The Doctor nods. "An excellent idea." He hands the other screwdriver, the screwdriver with all of his memories, to Rose. She stares at it for a few moments before slipping it into her pocket.

"Now," says River, clapping her hands together. "Let's go take on Lazarus." She charges up to the console with purpose. "Do you think 2022 gives him enough time to make a new device?" She pauses, then laughs. "I don't know why I'm asking you when I already know the answer." She fiddles with the controls, and everyone hangs on to something as they go five years into the future.

xxx

Rose and the Doctor change their clothes in the back bedroom of the TARDIS. They keep their backs to each other as they do so, though every once and a while Rose glances over her shoulder. The Doctor buttons up a white dress shirt and, once more, shoulders on his tuxedo jacket. It's Marcus Lazarus's second unveiling; this time, it's the unveiling of his remarkable Time _Progressing_ Device.

Rose slides into a sleek, strapless blue dress – the group went shopping for clothes to wear to the unveiling as soon as they arrived in 2022. After all, styles do have the annoying habit of changing with time. Luckily, blue is Rose's favorite color. It reminds her so much of the TARDIS.

"Zip me up?" she asks the Doctor as she turns to him.

He abandons his lopsided bowtie to assist her. His fingers brush against her lower back as he gently works the zipper up to between her shoulder blades. He sets his hands lightly on her bare shoulders. "There you are," he says, turning her around. "Don't you clean up nice?"

Rose makes a face at him as she picks her clutch purse off the bedside table. She slips the Doctor's memory-filled screwdriver into it. After all, tonight may be the night that he gets his memories back. It's quite possible that he won't have to return to his regeneration at all. Tonight, it all comes down to Marcus Lazarus.

"Doctor," she says, pressing one hand to his chest. "Can we talk?"

"Of course, Rose," he says, standing still to allow Rose to fix his bowtie.

"Well," she says. "I was wondering when I would be able to cash in that rain check." Her fingers pause at his throat, and she sneaks a peek at him. His face remains impassive, and when he takes too long to reply, Rose asks, "Doctor?"

"I _did_ promise you," he says. "And we did manage to save River."

"And?" Rose questions.

The Doctor leans down and, hesitantly, kisses Rose's mouth. He pulls away quickly. "I need to tell River first. I owe her the truth."

"When will you tell her?"

"Tonight," he vows.

xxx

River, despite the Doctor's general lack of attraction to her, looks stunning in black and silver. At the unveiling, the Doctor briefly leaves Rose and walks over to River. He offers his arm to her, and she links hers through his. Quietly, they take a turn about the room, only pausing to pick up two glasses of champagne.

"Spit it out then," she tells him, taking a sip of champagne. "I know we're not walking around for our health."

"I've just been curious about a few things," says the Doctor. "In the Library, for instance…I was able to re-watch the scene we shared when you chained me to that beam."

"Ah," says River. "Yes. Sorry about that, sweetie."

The Doctor pauses. "If you knew you'd be rescued and everything would work out, why were you so upset?"

She bows her head and smiles. Instead of answering his question, she coyly asks, "Doctor, why don't you tell me the real reason you've gotten me alone?"

The Doctor stops behind a tall, plaster pillar. The place is quiet and out of the way of the crowd. The Doctor drops River's arm and faces her head-on. "I love Rose," he blurts out.

River stares at him.

"Always have," he adds.

River smiles painfully and tries to hide it by taking a long sip of champagne. Once she is able to regain her composure, she lowers her glass. "I know," she finally says.

The Doctor says nothing and waits for an explanation.

"I wrote about it in the journal," she says. "Or, I _will _write about it soon." She gulps down some more champagne, but it does nothing to still the tear running down her cheek. She smiles again and rolls her eyes up to the ceiling. "Sorry, sweetie," she says. "I don't mean to be like this." She wipes her eye with her free hand. "Although your confession doesn't come as a surprise to me, it hurts just the same."

"I'm sorry." The Doctor looks at his feet. "I'm so sorry."

"I know you are," River says, setting her glass down on the table beside the pillar. "I know you, Doctor. And understand this: I love you. I will always love you. You are the greatest man I have ever known, and I will never regret loving you. But I also know you are someone who will forever sacrifice being happy for other people, and for once, you deserve your own happiness. In the Library…Well, let's just say I knew this day would come. I knew that I would die, and when I awoke, you would be a different Doctor. Neither Ten nor Eleven…Definitely not the Doctor who was ever in love with me."

It hurts the Doctor to look at her. He almost wants to take it all back as a bad joke, but he knows better than to keep on lying. Especially because he knows that River really means what she says – this isn't one of those scenarios where the person infatuated falsely claims to have the other person's best interests at heart; River genuinely cares. She wants the Doctor to be happy. But, for him to be happy, he can only ever be with Rose.

"Thank you," he says. He sets his own glass down beside hers on the table. "And I know you don't owe me anything, River, but I need to know. Do I do it? Do I go into the device and close the rift? Does Rose go back home? River, I _have _to know…" He takes her hands in his. "How does this adventure end?"

She hesitates, and the Doctor half-expects her to reply with her classically enigmatic "spoilers," but she doesn't. Instead, she says, "It ends happily." She turns away from him.

The Doctor wants to ask more, but he is interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. He turns, and Rory is standing there looking anxious and out of breath. "We've got trouble," he gasps, bending over and placing his hands on his knees. "They've got Amy."

"Who's got Amy?" the Doctor demands.

"I dunno. One second she was right beside me, and the next, she wasn't. I suppose Lazarus or his security guard recognized her." He wipes sweat from his forehead.

"Lazarus," the Doctor says suddenly. "He's been in his Time Progressing Device…giving him memories of things that haven't happened yet. He'd know we would show up. He's baiting us." He frowns. "Where's Rose?"

Rory hesitates.

"Rory," says the Doctor sternly.

"She went looking for Lazarus when Amy disappeared."

The Doctor shoulders past Rory and takes off running. He roughly pushes through the crowd, spilling drinks and earning angry protests from other party-goers. "Rose!" he shouts over the crowd. He spins, standing on the tips of his toes to see properly. "Rose!" he shouts again. _Foolish Rose_, he thinks worriedly. _Too brave for her own good._ He breaks out of the crowd and into the center of the room where a large _something_ is veiled by a sheet of fabric. Leaning against a pillar beside it is Marcus Lazarus. He waves his fingers at the Doctor.

The Doctor balls his hands into fists and advances on Lazarus.

"I must say," says Marcus cheerfully, "I'm curious to know the secret behind your body-switching trick. Even my machines can't do that." He chuckles. "You can imagine my surprise when I was given the memory of taking on _another _man who goes by the name of the Doctor."

"Where are they?" the Doctor seethes.

"The redhead and the blonde?" Marcus asks, smirking. "Leave now, and they'll be released. Give me any trouble, and you'll lose them forever."

"Leaving isn't an option," the Doctor says. "Since you have the ability to tell the future, you'd think you'd know that."

"Actually," says Marcus, "I don't. These memories are very temperamental. Once I succeed in stopping something from happening, my future memories don't change…They disappear completely. No matter, though. When that happens, I can get back in the device and get all new memories."

"That's very inconvenient for you," says the Doctor. "But as for me, it gives me an advantage."

"Oh?"

"Yes," the Doctor says, nodding. "It means you won't see _this _coming." The Doctor cocks back his fist and releases, punching Lazarus squarely between the eyes. Lazarus crumples to the floor, and the Doctor picks the inventor up by the collar of his button-down. Holding the fabric of his enemy's shirt in his fist, the Doctor slams Lazarus against the Time Progressing Device. "Now," says the Doctor, "I'm not one for physical confrontation, but I won't tolerate threats to my companions, so listen very carefully. You are going to release Rose and Amy, and you're going to discontinue the production of these horrible devices, and if you don't – if you _don't_ – you'll have the privilege to witness the deeds of a _very_ angry Time Lord."

"Perhaps," says Marcus Lazarus weakly as the crowd gathers around to watch, "we should find a more private place to chat."

"I couldn't agree more," says the Doctor, releasing him.

Marcus clears his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen," he says loudly, "I give you my sincere apologies, but I have to postpone the unveiling for another half hour. Excuse me." He turns to the Doctor and smiles wanly. "I'm all yours, Doctor."

"Lead the way."

River, Rory, and the Doctor follow Lazarus through the crowd to a back door. With the slide of a key card, Lazarus goes through the door and down a narrow corridor. He pauses outside the entrance of a dimly-lit warehouse. "Your friends are in there."

The Doctor pushes past Lazarus and enters the warehouse. The Doctor immediately freezes. Before him stands one of the devices and, trapped in its glass chamber, are Rose and Amy. A guard stands by the device with one hand on the controls; he awaits Lazarus's orders.

"That device is the same one you went into, Doctor." Lazarus's voice is remarkably calm. "Poetic, isn't it? Unfortunately, as it is damaged, the memory retrieval process doesn't work properly. In fact, should my associate turn it on, your little friends' brains will turn into mush. No memories. No nothing. They might come out alive, granted, but they'll never be the same." He smiles.

The Doctor gapes at the device in horror. His gaze falls on Rose, and she stares silently back at him with her wide, dark eyes. _"Doctor,"_ she mouths.

"Now, Doctor," says Lazarus, "I think you understand the gravity of your situation."

xxx

**Dun dun dunnnn. I plan to have two more chapters to wrap this sucker up, and I pretty much know exactly what I'm going to do. I hope everyone'll be happy with it. Also, I'd like to thank everyone who keeps putting up with me and my wibbly wobbly timey wimey nonsense. Sometimes, it's even hard for me to keep everything straight in my head. Leave your review on the way out.**


	9. Closing the Rift

**Refresher: Rose and Amy are trapped in the broken Time Reversal Device of doom because Lazarus is kind of a dick. **

xxx

"Let them out," the Doctor snarls.

"Leave," Lazarus counters.

For once, the Doctor doesn't know what to do. To leave is to give up and fail. To not leave is to lose Rose and Amy. The Doctor looks to River for guidance; since she's always one step ahead of everyone, he figures she will know what to do. River, however, seems to be frozen. Her hand is resting on the thigh of her dress, underneath which the Doctor knows she's hiding her pistol. However, the likelihood of her being able to draw fast enough to shoot Lazarus without him giving the orders to microwave Amy and Rose is close to zero. River's gaze slides, briefly, to the Doctor, before returning to the device. The Doctor, of course, looks at Rose.

That's when he sees it: Rose fumbling at the clasp of her clutch purse.

The Doctor resists the urge to grin. Doing his best to keep a straight face, he says, "How much longer, Marcus, is it going to take you to realize that you can't play God?"

Lazarus raises his eyebrows. "Hypocrisy is unattractive, Doctor."

Rose slips the Doctor's memory-filled screwdriver from her purse.

"I survived your device on a technicality," the Doctor replies. He smiles. "The perks of having lived for a millennium."

Rose aims the screwdriver through the glass at the console of the machine. She squints, trying to get a good shot at the keypad. Really, it's not going to matter where she aims it.

Lazarus suddenly frowns at the Doctor. "You're stalling," he says. "Why?"

Rose turns on the sonic screwdriver, and it emits a high-pitched frequency that echoes in the confines of the glass chamber.

Lazarus spins around in surprise to look at the device. River takes the opportunity to hike up the hem of her dress and pull the pistol from her hidden holster. The Doctor steps aside as River jets forward and throws her right leg out to sweep Lazarus's feet out from beneath him. The guard reaches for his gun just as Lazarus falls. River grabs hold of Lazarus by his hair, and she presses the tip of her pistol to the side of his neck.

"Drop it," she tells the guard. The look on her face is a challenge.

The guard looks at Lazarus for instructions.

"Do as she says, Vince," says Lazarus casually.

Vince, the guard, hesitates before slowly bending over and setting his gun on the ground. He straightens up, puts his hands up, and backs away from the gun.

"Get away from the machine," River commands.

The guard edges towards the corner of the room. As soon as he's far enough away from the machine to not be a threat, the Doctor runs forward and fiddles with the controls. He presses a button and the door to the device opens with a faint hiss. Rose tumbles out into the Doctor's arms, and Amy streaks past the Doctor to hug Rory.

The Doctor examines Rose's face. Her cheek is bruised, and she has a split lip. "Did he hurt you?" the Doctor demands.

"I'm alright," she says. She holds up the screwdriver. "Thank God I had this."

The Doctor ushers her towards Amy and Rory. "You lot," he addresses them. "Get back to the TARDIS. River and I will take it from here." The Doctor knows that all three of them are well-equipped to handle danger, but he also knows they're a liability. Once the Doctor has them out of the way, he and River can figure out what to do with Lazarus.

"I'm not leaving," says Rose sternly.

The Doctor looks at her in surprise. "Rose, I'll see you in the TARDIS soon. We're just going to turn him into the authorities."

"No. I mean I'm not _leaving._" She stares at him. "I know as soon as you finish with Lazarus, you're going to come to the TARDIS to return me home."

The Doctor frowns. "Rose, I haven't decided whether or not I'm going into the Time Progressing Device, yet, or if I'm going to try to replant all of my memories and find another way to close the rift. We still have time."

"Doctor," Rose says softly. "You know as well as I do that, at any time, something could slip through from the Void. Remember when the Daleks did?" She folds her hands over his. "There's only one surefire way of closing the rift, and that's if you go back into the device. And you know it. So don't lie to me, Doctor."

"I'll be different," he warns.

"Don't forget, you were different when I first met you," she says.

The Doctor hesitates. "You'll be leaving behind your family."

"Then, when you come back to the TARDIS, you can take me to say bye to them for the last time." She juts her chin out in defiance.

The Doctor looks at River. She's still pointing her gun at Lazarus's throat, but her eyes are on the Doctor. Her expression is unreadable.

"I'll consider it," he finally says to Rose. "Go back to the TARDIS, and I'll figure out what to do next once we've taken care of Lazarus." Rose, Amy, and Rory start for the door.

The Doctor turns his back on his companions to look at River and Lazarus. Lazarus grins.

_"Now,"_ the inventor shouts.

Vince, the guard, whips another pistol out from behind his back. A shot rings out and River crumples. Lazarus disarms River, rolls, and raises River's gun to shoot the Doctor. Instinctively, the Doctor leaps to the side. Another shot rings out.

Lazarus is still on the floor, pointing the gun. The Doctor kicks it out of his hand, and the gun skitters over to River's left hand. River, clutching her wounded shoulder with her right hand, grabs the gun with her other. Without a second's thought, she shoots the guard in the leg. Vince drops his second gun and falls on the floor.

The Doctor looks at River. She has her gun trained on Lazarus, though upper arm is bleeding profusely.

"River?" the Doctor questions in concern.

"Doctor!" Amy cries.

The Doctor turns to the doorway.

Amy and Rory are crouching down on the floor, and Rose is slumped against the doorframe.

The Doctor stares at them, though his brain doesn't seem to register what he's seeing. _They were leaving_, he thinks. _They were heading to the TARDIS._

Rose's head lolls forward, her chin nearly resting against her chest. She's still holding the screwdriver in her hand, and the heel of one of her shoes is missing – it must have snapped off when she fell. The Doctor can almost imagine how it went: the first shot sounded and Rose, halfway out the door, stopped and turned to look. Then, the second shot rang out.

The Doctor starts walking towards Rose, though his legs don't seem to be working properly. It takes years for the Doctor to cross the room, and when he finally does, he sinks to his knees beside Rose. Amy and Rory move out of the way.

"Rose," says the Doctor, unable to keep his eyes off of the dark stain blossoming in the middle of her blue dress. "No," he says. "No…" His hands shake. "Rose?"

She opens her mouth to speak, but blood dribbles out. She coughs.

Somewhere, floating above him, someone says, "It will be alright, Doctor. We'll save her like we saved River…"

"No," the Doctor finds himself saying. _Putting Rose in a Time Reversal Device will only destroy the universe even more – she's lived too long in a parallel world for there not to be consequences. _He tries to explain this to the Ponds, but he can't. If he were to fix her with a device, he would be putting billions upon billions of lives at risk at every time in every place there ever was or ever will be. And he would have to do more than walk into a device himself in order to close the rift.

"Doctor," Rose mumbles.

"Rose," he says, winding his fingers in her yellow hair with one hand. "Stay with me. You have to stay with me." He presses his other hand to her bleeding stomach.

"Doctor, I need…I need…" She closes her eyes, struggling. Her face distorts with spasms of pain.

"Don't try to talk," he says, his vision swimming. He kisses her mouth and tastes blood. "Stay with me, Rose."

xxx

Rose fights to keep her eyes open. The Doctor's face keeps fading in and out of darkness. He keeps kissing her and telling her to stay. Rose closes her eyes.

_A dog. There's a dog sitting before Rose. His ears prick up. To the right of Rose is the Doctor, who looks at her. "In fact," he says. "I think I'll do the opposite." He takes the dog's face between his palms. __"Tell the man with the bowtie that everything will be alright, no matter what happens. Tell him not to tell the Ponds what I said because they won't understand. They'll try to stop him. And tell him…Tell him he'll get to see her again."_

Her, who?

"Doctor," Rose gasps, opening her eyes once more. A fresh dose of pain makes her limbs writhe. She coughs up some more blood. "The dog," she says.

"Dog?" the Doctor asks through a sheen of tears. "Rose, you aren't making sense."

"The dog," she repeats. "You never told me." She tries to explain that he never told her who the "her" was, but it's difficult for Rose to find her words. "Her, who?" she finally manages.

The Doctor seems to understand. He shakes his head. "Rose," he says. "It's only ever been you."

Rose wants to tell him the same thing, but she can't keep her eyes open any longer. The Doctor's face disappears. Instead, she sees clear blue. _That's odd_, she thinks. _Who would've thought the sky would be the last thing you see before you die? _

xxx

"No, no, no," the Doctor chants, gently shaking Rose. Blood no longer gushes from the wound in her stomach. Her heart is spent, her breathing's stopped. _"Rose."_ He didn't even get to say it; he didn't get to tell her how much he loves her.

He looks up from her body. River is standing over Lazarus; Lazarus looks deeply shaken. He opens his mouth to speak. "I was aiming for you," he says, as if apologizing.

The Doctor ignores Lazarus. Instead, he glares at River. Furious tears stream down his face. "You told me it ended happily," he says, his voice barely above a whisper. He advances on her. "How is this…How is _this _a happy…?" He can't even finish his sentence. "River?"

River remains silent.

_"How is this a happy ending?" _the Doctor bellows, startling Lazarus. The Doctor looks from River to Lazarus. Then, he crosses the room towards the fallen guard. He hesitates before picking up the guard's gun. He turns and points it at Lazarus.

"Doctor," River says gently. "Don't do something you'll regret."

_"He killed Rose," _the Doctor shouts. In all of his adventures, the Doctor's refrained from using guns; after all, he can easily ruin someone's life without even pulling a trigger. _You ruined Rose's life,_ he tells himself. The gun shakes in his hands. It's strange that something made out of bits of metal should feel so alien in his grasp.

"You're not going to shoot him," says River.

"Just watch me."

"No," says River. With a cold determination, River looks down at Lazarus and squeezes the trigger of her own pistol. With a blast and a spray of blood, Lazarus falls limp on the floor.

The Doctor stares at the dead body in shock. "I was going to kill him," he says. He looks at River furiously. "He was mine." For one split second, the Doctor has the urge to shoot River between the eyes. No, not between the eyes. That would be too quick. He wants nothing more than to cause her as much pain as possible. "I _hate_ you," he tells her.

She looks startled.

"You knew this would happen," the Doctor says, "and you didn't try to stop it."

River lowers her gun. "Doctor," she begins.

_"No,"_ he snarls. "You don't _get_ to say anything. Rose is dead, and it's your fault. You know I can't bring her back. You know there is _nothing _I can do." He points his finger at her. "You let it happen because you couldn't stand the thought of me being with her."

River's face looks stricken.

"Doctor!" Amy exclaims, appalled.

"You're angry, Doctor," River finally says. "I understand. I'm angry too."

"_You don't have the right to be angry."_

"Doctor," she says, "you need to calm down."

The Doctor turns to look at Rose's body. He walks over to her and crouches down, dropping the gun at her side. He touches her face, her throat, her hands. He pries his screwdriver from her fingers. "Why bother helping me save my memories?" he asks, clutching the screwdriver. "Why bother helping me at all? You knew it would come to this, River."

"Sweetie," she says, "you need to go into the Time Progressing Device and close the rift."

"No," says the Doctor, turning on her and clutching the screwdriver to his chest. "I don't want to turn into a man who was ever in love with you."

River flinches.

"Doctor, stop," Amy pleads. She tugs on the Doctor's sleeve and pulls him to her. She takes him in her arms. "You need to stop."

"Mother's right," says River, wiping her face. "Hurting me won't bring Rose back, and you're not the sort of man who seeks vengeance." She takes a step towards Amy and the Doctor. "I'm just doing everything the journal told me to do. I was told…" She swallows. "I was told I was supposed to give you a choice."

"What choice?"

"You can either choose to go into the Time Progressing Device, or you can do the alternative."

Decisions are treacherous things; the Doctor knows this better than anyone. After all, each choice creates a new timeline in a parallel universe. This was one of the first things he ever taught Rose.

"What's the alternative?" Amy asks.

The Doctor already knows. "She means I can die. Die without regeneration."

Amy pulls away from him. "What are you talking about?"

"Order between the universes would be restored with my death. The rift would close."

"No," says Amy.

Rory clutches the Doctor's sleeve. "You can't," he says. "You can't do this to us."

The Doctor gently removes Rory's hand. "I've made my decision. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to know you two."

"You can't give up," says Amy. "Not now." She starts to cry.

"He's not giving up," says River softly as she raises her gun. She meets the Doctor's eyes. "I said that you deserved to be happy, and I meant it. When I said _it_ would save you, I didn't just mean your memories."

The Doctor looks down at the screwdriver in his hand. He feels an electric shock run down his arm. He suddenly understands. "You could have told me, River," he says, "before I said all of those terrible things."

"Where's the fun in that?" River asks, smiling slightly as she pulls the trigger.

xxx

River sits in the TARDIS, scratching the last few words into her journal with a pen. She pauses, reading what she's written. _With your death in the Library, River, you will leave this sonic screwdriver to the Doctor. It has Rose's and the Doctor's data ghosts on it in addition to all of the Doctor's memories. With the aid of the TARDIS, I've managed to extend the battery life of the screwdriver, so your Doctor should be able to plug it into CAL with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, the screwdriver won't be able to support the memory of your data ghost. You cannot go with them. These are your last days with the Doctor. _

xxx

**STILL WITH ME? **

**Good. Don't freak out. There's still one more chapter to come. My apologies for any feelings of rage you may be currently experiencing.**


	10. Two Ghosts

**Refresher (not sure why you need one since I updated yesterday AND today…): Rose, the Doctor, and Lazarus all kicked the bucket in the last chapter. River got shot in the arm, and some guard that no one gives a shit about got shot in the leg. Rose had the memory-filled screwdriver in her hand when she died, so it saved her data ghost to it. The Doctor, too, had the memory-filled screwdriver in his hand when HE died (aka, when River iced him), so he ALSO had his data ghost (plus his memories) saved to it. (Off screen, but assumed): River takes THIS screwdriver and sends it off with her journal to her past Library self. So, when the Library River gives the Tenth Doctor the screwdriver in the Library, the Doctor ends up actually saving himself and Rose to CAL, and NOT saving River. So pretend like that bit in the actual show (when River is off in lala-virtual-reality land) never happened. Okay. Here we go. **

xxx

The Doctor opens his eyes and sees patches of blue sky. Clouds quickly parade by overhead, and the wind whistles loudly past his ears. He finds that he's lying on his back in pale grass. _I know this place_, he thinks. He lifts his head a fraction to see a stream of hover cars flying along the horizon. _New Earth_. This is his virtual reality? New Earth?

He drops his head back down on the ground and sighs. All of the memories in his head flood together – he remembers when he was his tenth regeneration, but he also remembers his eleventh. Most painfully, he remembers _not_ remembering. The full weight of the pain he caused his companions bears down on him. How he unceremoniously left Rory and Amy. And River. He closes his eyes as his hearts hurt for River. She saved him in every way possible: she saved his forgotten memories, she saved him from killing Lazarus, she saved his _life_ on multiple occasions, she saved his data ghost, and, somewhere, she saved Rose. She did all of this because she loved him. If he could say anything to her, in this moment, he'd tell her sorry.

He traces his fingers over his face and finds that he's still in the body of his tenth regeneration; after all, that was the body he wore when he died. The Doctor touches his forehead. All he feels is smooth skin. No blood. No bullet hole. His muscles relax; he no longer has anything to worry about.

"Doctor?" a voice asks, barely audible over the wind.

The Doctor rolls his head to the left and sees a familiar face. Rose is lying on her side, her yellow hair blowing every which way. She gives him a wide smile – one of those smiles that make the skin around her eyes crinkle.

"Rose," the Doctor says, unable to keep from grinning back at her. "Did you pick this place?"

"I think we both picked it," she says. She hesitates. "I died, then?"

He crawls over to her until they're both resting on their sides, facing each other. His nose nearly touches hers. "I died too, to close the rift and be with you." They don't speak for a few moments; instead, they listen to the wind. Then, the Doctor says, "I have to apologize to you about something."

"What could you possibly have to say sorry for?" she asks, frowning.

"I love you," he says. "And I didn't have the sense to tell you when you were alive."

Rose gives him a look. "Just because we died, it doesn't mean we're not alive." She kisses him, and he pulls her in close. She buries her face into his chest, nestling the top of her head beneath his chin. "I once told you I'd stay with you forever, Doctor. Through every adventure. I meant it."

The Doctor considers this. "Well," he says. "Now you can."

xxx

**See? They got a happy ending in virtual reality world. I know this chapter was short, and that the refresher-plus-endnote is probably longer than the chapter itself, but I hope you'll forgive me. And if you're wondering what happens to the other characters…Well, at the beginning when Amy and Rory set out with the Doctor, they were told it would be their last adventure with him. THEY WERE WARNED. With the Doctor out of their lives, they're able to move on and settle down and have a family. River, having inherited the TARDIS, will carry on the Doctor's do-gooding. Hopefully, she will find happiness too. Poor River. It was unavoidable, though. Someone had to get hurt here. **

**Anyway, I'm glad you guys saw this story to the end. I know it wasn't a **_**long**_** story, but I sure had fun writing it. You guys are awesome. If anything still confuses you, or I've left something unexplained (this is likely), please let me know. If not, leave a review anyway to either ego-boost or soul-crush. Or both. **


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